The Uganda PROTECTORATE A MAl.li AND I'liMAI.E DwARl' KKU.M TJIK SkMLIKI FoRUST. The Uganda PROTECTORATE AN ATTEMPT TO GIVE SOME DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, BOTANY. ZOOLOGY. ANTHROPOLOGY, LANGUAGES AND HISTORY OF THE TERRITORIES UNDER BRITISH PROTECTION IN EAST CENTRAL AFRICA, BETWEEN THE CONGO FREE STATE AND THE RIFT VALLEY AND BETWEEN THE] FIRST DEGREE OF SOUTH LATITUDE AND THE FIFTH DEGREE OF NORTH LATITUDE SIR HARRY JOHNSTON G.C.M.G., K.C.B. Gold Medallist Royal Scottish Geographical Society Gold Medallist Zoological Society Formerly Special Commissioner to the Uganda Protectorate etc.. etc. IN TWO VOLS. WITH 506 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR AND OTHERS 48 FULL-PAGE COLOURED PLATES BY THE AUTHOR AND 9 MAPS BY J. G. BARTHOLOMEW AND THE AUTHOR VOL. II. London: HUTCHINSON & CO. Paternoster Row 1902 PRINTED BY IIAZELL WATSOX, AND VINEY, LONDON AND AYLESBURY a CONTENTS OF VOL. TI CHAPTER XIII PACJE Anthropology — Appendix : Analysis of Antbropotiietiic Observations of Author, by Dr. F. Shrubs;ill 471 CHAPTER XIV Pygmies and Forest Negroes — Appendix : Notes on a Bambute Pygmy's Skeleton, by Dr. F. Shrubsall 510 CHAPTER XV Bantu Negroes: the Bakonjo, Banyoro, Bahima, etc 566 CHAPTER XVI Bantu Negroes : the Baganda and Basoga ...... 636 CHAPTER XVII Bantu Negroes: Kavirondo, Masaba, etc. ...... 722 CHAPTER XVIII Nilotic Negroes ........... 756 803326 vi CONTENTS OV VOL. II CHAPTER XIX PAGE Masai, Turkana, SCk, Nandi, etc 796 CHAPTER XX Laxguaoes — Appendices : Fifty A^ocabularies and additional Philological Notes 885 COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. II 3J0. TI ILE. SOURCE. 43. A male and female dwarf from the Semliki Foi-est . Paintintj hij the Author To face p 528 44. A Muhima of Mpuroro ,, ,, , GIG 45. An Ankole bull »» )» G24 4G. A Masai warrior ,, ,, , 824 47. A Nandi ,, ,, , 8G0 48. A Kamasia " " ' 8(i8 MAPS IN VOL. II J.-0. TIILE. 8. Uganda Protectorate ; eharacter and distriljution of the native races 1). Uganda Protectorate ; general distribution of language groups To face p. 48G 884 RLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. II Bagesu) NO. TITLE. "254. A Pygmy of the Congo Forest :255. A Pygmy of the Congo Forest "25G. A Pygmy of the Congo Forest 257. Natives of western slope.s of Mount Elgon 258. Andorobo of the Rift Valley 259. A Bantu Negro (Mnyamwezi) 2G0. A Bantu Negi'o (Mnyamwezi) 2G1. A Bantu Negro (Mnyamwezi) '2G2. A Bantu Negro (Miiyamwezi) 2G3. A good-looking type of Bantu : a nativi (Kakumegii) ..... 264. Acholi Nile Negroes .... "265. Hima and Bantu : 1. Hima of Ankole. 2. Mu-iro of Ankole . 2GG. A ^Muhima of ^Nlpi'iroro ...... 267. A Munande ......... "268. A Munande (same individual as No. 2G7) . — Gy. An "apedike " Negro from the verge of the Congo Forest Mubira or Munande vii of Kavirondo SOURCE. i A Draivinfi hii the Avthor. \ I from Authors Photoiiraph I PhotOfjrciph b'l the Author Photoijraph hij Mr. Do>i;/ett Photo'iraji/i liii the Author ( A Drawhui hii the Author, \ I from Author^s Photoijraph J PAGE 472 47.3 474 475 47G 478 479 480 481 483 484 485 486 511 512 513 Yiii BLACK AND WHITE ILLrSTRATIOXS IX VOL. II so. 270. 271. 272. 273. 27fi. 277. 278. 279. 280. 281. 282. 283. 284. 285. 286. 287. 288. 289. 290. 291. 292. 293. 294. 295. 296. 297. 298. 299. 300. 301. 302. 303. 304. 305. 306. .S07. 308. 309. 310. 31L 312. ''''TLE. SOURCE. PACilT An "ape-like" Negro (same a.s No. 269) .... PhotO'jraph hii the Author 514 Banilmte Pyginie.s from the Congo Forest (west of the Seinliki River) ••...... Tluee Banibute Pygmies An Mbute Pygmy from Ix'vond Lun.inzuhiV (Upper Ituri Distiict) An Ml (lite Pygmy (same as No. 273) A Pygmy woman of the Mule.se stock, Upper Ituri A Pygmy woman from Mhoga, west of Semliki . . A group of Bambute Pygmies Bambute Pygmies at Fort Mbeni, Upjjer Ituri . . Bambute Pygmies at Fort Mbeni Bambute Pygmies (to show attitudes) A Pygmy wom.in from Mboga (west of Semliki River, near I'jiper Ituri) ........ An ^Ibute Pygmy, Upper Ituri ...... An Mbute Pygmy, Upper Ituri ...... A Pigmy woman of the Baljira group, Congo Forest (west of Albert Edward) ...... A Pygmy woman of the Babira group .... A Pygmy woman, Mulese stock (same as Xo. 285) . . Two Bambute Pygmies. (The figure on the left is the one who died in Uganda in March, 1900, and whose skeleton is described on p. .559) ....... ,, A Dwarf \\oman from Mboga ...... A Dwarf woman from the Babira countrv .... A Pygmy child from ^Slboga ...... A Pygmy child from Mboga ...... An Mbute Pygmy ^^ ^^ Two Bambute Pygmies ....... An old man Pygmy from near Lup;inzula"s (Upper Ituri District) A Pygmy chief and his brother (Bambute). (The chief is the individual on the left,and is 5 feet 1 inch in height) ,, ,, ,, Pygmies dancing ......... Pygmies dancing ., ,, ,, Pygmies dancing : a halt to consider the next figure . „ ,, „ Pygmies eating ,, ,, ,, Pygmy weapons and implements : dagger and scabbard, knives, chopper, arrows and quiver, a soft leather pad or glove to guard left hand when the arrow is being shot from the bow, bow and arrows .... Photofjraph bii Mr. Dorjijctt Pygmy weapons, and two trumpets made from elephant's tusks .......... ,, ,, „ Dwarfs giving a musical performance seated ... ,,,,,, A Lendu, or Lega, from south-west corner of Lake Albert Photofjraph hu the Author A Lendu fnjm we-t of L.ike Albert (showing intermixture with Hima invaders of jjast times) .... Photo'jruph h>/ Mr. Doijgttt Two Bambuba nnd Munande (the Munande is the central figiirt*) Photofiraph hii the Author An Mbuba of tlie Ituri Forest, with o.x horn trumpet . ,, ,, „ Natives of the L'pper Congo, near Aruwimi mouth (show- ing cicatrisation and teeth-shariiening) .... „ ,, „ An Mbuba jilayiiig on a bow-string, the most jH-imitive of man's instruments ........ ,, ,, ,, Baamba of the western flanks of Ruwenziri ... ,,,,,, An Mbute Pygmy of the Upper Ituri. (This is the individual whose skeleton is here described) . . . ,, ,, ,, 559- A Tonj Negro from the east side of Ruwenzori . . . Pltotmiraph hii Mr. D())j "!/>■" I'l' ''.'' : Do(jgett A Mukonjo smoking tobacco from a pipe made of banana- f A Dm in' hi) hii tin: Author, I leafstalk I frotii Author's P/iotor/raph j A Konjo shield, Ruwenzori Pliotoiiraph hit the Author Tore peasants (tall and short) ...... ,, ,, ,, A woman of Toro ........ ,, ,, „ A chief's wife, Toro ,, ,, ,, A king's messenger, Toro ....... ,, ,, ,, Chiefs of Mboga (a territory west of the Semliki River) . ,, ,, ,, A Munyoro man (of Kabarega's family) .... ,, ,, ,, A Munyoro man (of Kabarega's family) .... ,, ,, ,, A Munyoro .......... ,, ,, ,, A ram and ewe of the large fat-tailed Unyoro breed of sheep .......... ,, ,, ,, A fat-tailed sheep from Unj'oro A Drairimj hii the Author Kasagama, king of Toro, and his mother (a prince.ss of Unyoro) .......... Plioto/ the Author 650 361. All l^gaiuhv crowd . ' ,, ,, ,, 651 362. The Special Coinmissioiiei' and a crowd of Cagaiida guests on the l.itB Queen's l)irthday Phot'ii/nijih hi/ Mr. Dofjfjfdt 652 363. An Uganda house Photo;/)-iiph Ini t/ie Author 653 364. Chief's house, Uganda „ ,, „ 654 365. Peasant's hut, Uganda ,, ,, ,, 655 ■366. Framework of an Uganda house ,, ,, ,, 656 366a. Plans of Uganda buildings A Drauiiu/ bii Mr. F. Pordai/e To face p. 656 ■367. A house and courtj-ard, Uganda Photograph hii the Author (557 368. Interior of a native church, Uganda „ ,, ,, 658 -;-?6'J. An Uganda canoe ........ ,, ,, ,, 65'J { Photoqraph hii the Edin-'\ .370. Model of an Uganda canoe a^'^TkSS^: ««« I collection J 371. The first attempt of Uganda carpenters to make a wheeled Vehicle. (This little cart belongs to the prime minister, Apolo) .......... Photograph hii Mr. Do(j;ictt 662 /■ Photoijrajjh hij the Edin- "i 372. Uganda pottery (a milk-pot and tobacco pipes) and an ( hunjh Muacum of Science \ „r.^ Uganda flute . . . . . ■ • ■ • ] and Art, from Author^ » j V collection } 373. A band of music : drums and trumpets .... Photograph bii the Author 665 574. The "amadinda" (a xylophone) Photograph hy Mr. Doggett 667 C Photograph hi> the Edin- , ^^ , , . , , I hurnh Museum of Science \ ,.,.„ 3,0. An I ganda shield -^ and Art, from Authors [ ^^^ \ collection J 376. Method of carrying pipe slung over the left shoulder . A Draicing by Mr. Doggett 675 377. Uganda chiefs. They are (beginning on the left) Embogo, the Muhammadan chief (brother of Mutesa) ; Mug- wanya (a regent); Kangawo (a regent); an " Owe- sadza" (governor of a district); Paul Mukwenda ; and another Owesadza Photograph bij the Author 683 378. Baganda women Photograph by Mr. Doggett 600 -379. Aixjlo Kagwa, first regent and prime minister of Uganda Photograph by the Author 6!)G 380. A Musoga ., ., „ 715 381. "Tall, peaked fetish huts " ; also "suspended grass ex- tinguishers " over stones for libations . . ■ . A Drauing by the Author 717 382. An albino child in Bu.soga Photograph by the Author 721 383. A woman of the Bosia tribe, Masaba, North-West Elgon . ,, ,, ,, 723 384. Bagesu (Bakonde, Masaba) people of West Elgon . . ,, ,, ,, 725 ^^5. A Kakumega chief, south of Nzoia River, North Kavirondo ,, „ „ 727 386. Kavircmdo women, Nzoia River ...... ,, ,. ,, 729 387. Kavirondo woman, Nzoia River ...... ,, ,, ,, 730 388. Kavirondo men (showing ornamental designs in clay on the legs) ,, ,, ,, 731 389. Kavirondo men and their adornments .... ,, ,, ,, 732 390. A " matinee hat ": Kavirondo (in Kakumega country) . ,, ,, ,, 733 391. Plan of a Kavirondo house A Draving by the Author 734 .392. In a Kavirondo villa'je Photograph by the Author 735 393. A walled village in Kavirondo, north of Nzoia River . „ ,, ,, 73() 394. Gate of a walled town „ „ ,, 737 395. Arched gateway of a walled town, Kavirondo ... ,,,,,, 738 396. Peaks of the roofs of the Masaba houses. West Elgon . A Drawing by the Author 739 397. A field of .sorghum (durra) corn Photograph by the Author 740 398. Tame female ostriches in Mumia's village, Kavirondo „ ,, ,, 741 BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. 11 XI 424. 425. 426. 427. 428. 421). 431. 432. 433. 434. 435. 43G. 437. 438. SOURCE. P/iotor/faji/i hii Mr. Doy;/ctt P/iotiiijraph by Capt. Collard I'/iotoijrajih hit the Author Phutoijraph bi/ Mr. Dmjyett NO. TITLE. 3!J!). Warriors aiifl shields, Kavirondo 400. A Kavirondo wizard .... 401. A Kavirondo iiiusieian, witli lyre 402. A dance in Kavirondo .... 403. A pas dc deux in a Kavirondo dance . 404. A Bari Negro, Gondokoro, White Nile 405. A Bari Negro, Gondokoro, White Nile 406. Karaiuojo and Nilotic Negroes from northern part of Central Province. (The second figure from the right shows typical shape of Nile Negro's legs) ... >> j, ,, 407. A Logbwari (Madi) Negro (mi.xed race of Nile Negro and Bantu) „ „ ,, 408. Karamojo Negroes (showing "pencils" thrust into the lower lips) ......... ,, ,, 40'J. A Dinka Nile Negro / Photo{ir 760 767 768 76» 770 771 772 773- 774 Photoijrtipli hii the Author Photoi/raph bi/ Mr. Do'jjctt 423. Ground plan of an Adioli house Sudane-se selling fried termites (white ants) Head of Bukedi ox with crossed horns from Lango countrj-, Central Province ........ A A Lango chief wearing a helmet of kauri shells A raft made of papyrus bundles. White Nile Husband and wife, Ja-luo . ..... .Ja-luo women : tails and aprons . . . . , (A Drairinij hi/ the Author, ~\ . -! from Major Delnii Bad- - 776- V. cUffe's information I Photo'irapli hii the Author "ill A Drinrinn bij the Author 778 ,, ,, ,, 779- r Photograph b;i Mr. E. X. '\ 780 1 Bu.rton .1 Photoiiriipli bji the Author 781 , 782.- 4;30. Pattern frequently shaved on men's heads (Ja-luo) i A Drawiu;/ b;i the Autlior,\ from Mr. Hobleifs in- - t formation j Photoiiraph bii the Author Photo;/ raph bii Mr. Do'jtjett 783 A Ja-luo man with ear-rings Photoi/raph bii the Author 784 A Ja-luo man with ear-rings ...... ,, ,, ,, 785- Head-dress of feathers and neck and arm ornaments in iron wire of .Ja-luo men. (Note the prominent upper incisor teeth, due to the lower incisors being removed) . Ja-luo fisherwomen and their baskets .... Ja-luo out fishing in Kavirondo Bay with seines of papyrus stalks Emptying the fish-baskets (Ja-luo) A medicine man from Nvakach, south side of Kavirondo Bay . . . ' The game of " bao," played all over East Central Africa. (The players here are Yao soldiers from British Central Africa) Photoyra/jk by Mr. Casson 7U5- 786- 788 789- 791 Phot'if/raiih liii the Author 793 xii BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. II are playing so. TITLE. 431). Gwas' Ngisliu Masai (bowmen) . 440. Pastoral Masai (warriors) of Naivasha 441. Enj.iinusi (Nyarusi) agricultural Masai 442. -V -Masai warrior (Naivasha) 443. A Masai warrior (Naivasha) 444. Tattooing round a Masai woman's eyes 445. Masai elder witli fur caj)e . 446. Masai woman of Naivasha . 447. Young Masai women. (One of them is about so she is having irtui wire coiled round her le 448. Masai matron ...... 449. Houses of the pastoral Masai 450. Houses of the agricultural Masai (Enjamiisi) 451. A village of the agricultural Masai (Pjujamusi) 452. Masai catt'e, Nakuro 453. Masai sheep and goats 454. Masai sheep 455. Masai donkeys . . . . ' . 456. Spears of Masai warriors. (Some of the men the game of draughts, illustrated on p. 795) 457. A Masai warrior with long spear 458. Bows of Gwas' Ngishu Masai 459. Warriors of the Gwas' Ngishu Masai . 460. Masai shields 401. Masai warriors 462. ^lasai chief and medicine man (the late Terere) 463. A Masai forge and Ijlacksmith (Enjamusi) . 464. Karamojo people ...... 465. A Karamojo woman 466. A Karamojo woman ..... 467. Turkana and Suk men from the vicinity of the Ril)0 Hills and the River Kerio ...... 468. A Suk from near Lake Sugota ..... 469. A Suk e/( ignon ........ 470. Two tall Suk elders 471. A Suk chief from north of Baringo .... 472. A group of Suk (showing tattooing on arms) 473. Ostrich egg and antelope "knuckle-bone" necklace Turkana, River Kerio 474. A Srdv stool 475. A Turkana shield .... 476. Srd< dancing ...... 477. Suk dancing ...... 478. Suk about to dance. (Note the li])-rint upper lip) ..... 479. A dance of the Suk jjeople. (Note the figures j the air) ...... 480. Elgumi people (sometimes called Wamia) 481. An Andorobo man of the Hamitic type 482. Two And()r(jbo of tlie Hamitic type . 483. An Andorobo of the Pygmy type 484. An Andorobo (same as No. 481) . 485. A Nandi one man imping m Phototjraph h>j the Author Photograph bfi Air. Doriyctt Photoijrdph tni thr Author A Drdiciiii/ hi/ thr Author Plioto Author Photoyraph bii the Author A Drau-intj bii the Author Fhoto(jr(iph bi/ the Author A Draieiu;! bii Mr. Do2 8G3 8)!4 8(55 8«(j 807 8«y 870 871 872 873 874 876 A Dnurimj hi/ the Author 877 Photof/niph till Mr. Do;/;iett 878 879 830 Photijijraph l/ii Mr. Do'iijett 881 A Draicuii/ bit the Author 900 THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE CHAPTER XIII ANTHE OP OLD a Y A LL the researches made into the natural history of the hniiiau race ul\- practically result in our agreeing to recognise three main types, which here and there haye interbred and produced hybrid peojjles difficult to classify. These types are the yellow -shinned JNIongolian, with narrow eyes, high cheek-bones, narrow, flattened nose, a tendency to paucity of hair ou the face and body and, on the contrary, to long and coarse hair on tlie head (Mongolians, Chinese, Malays, Polynesians, and American Indians); a brown or white Caucasian type, with a distinct tendency to be hairy about the face and body, with head-hair long though inclined to be curly ;ind usually fine of texture, of handsome features, full eyes, straight well- deyeloped nose ; and the Negro type, never lighter in colour than dark yellow, and strongly inclining to be black, with flat, bridgeless, wide- winged nose, high cheek-bones, poor chin, and, aboye all, with head- and body-hair closely curled, woolly, and differing in this particular sharply from the Caucasian and ^longolian races of men.* The Negro race certainly originated in Southern Asia, i)Ossibly in India, not far from the yery centre where man himself emerged in some foiin similar to the Plthecaiiihropos erectus from a brancli of the anthropoid apes. Perhaps on tlie whole the Negro retains more simian characteristics than any otlier existing type of humanity. On (he other hand, some of his peculiarities depart from the simian, and would indicate a line t)f deyelopment on his o\yn account, possibly somewliat on the down-grade. As regards hairiness of body, the European and Asiatic races belonging to the Caucasian type come much nearer to the anthropoid apes than does the Negro, though all Negroes perhaps exhibit more body-hair in a natural state than is usually supposed to be the case, it being a widespread custom throughout most Negro tribes (except the most degraded) to remoye In' artificial means the liair on face and body. The crimpeil or woolly * There are anatomical details in wliicli the Negro apiiioxiinates more to the white race than to the ^Mongolian. VOL. Tl. 4'i 1 472 ANTHROPOLOGY appearance of Xegro liair is not, of course, an ape-like characteristic; indeed, the anthropoid apes have head-hair more resembling in appearance that of the ^Mongolian type of humanity, though in some chimpanzees I have noticed a tendency to wavy, "crimped" hair. In the shape of the skull, 254. A I'Vij.MV UF TllK CU.NuU i'OKEfeX ill the foot, in the relative proportion of the limbs, the Negro species (which, it must be remembered, includes the ancient inhabitants of Tasmania, the Negritoes and Pajmans of Eastern Asia and Polynesia) is less divergent from the ape than other living races of mankind. The Negro type which oi-iginated in Southern Asia was possibly of an under-sized appearance, his skin, however, being rather yellower than black. ANTHROPOLOGY 173 He must have wandered across the peninsula of Arabia, follow- ing, no doubt, the anthropoid a[)es which preceded him along the same route (Arabia then being well watered and covered with vegetation) into Eastern Africa, and in all probability he made his first permanent home within the limits of the Uganda Protectorate. In Arabia he either mingled with the Caucasian race from the north, or himself evolved a nobler and handsomer type. Tn one or other way arose the Hamite,* that negroid race which was the main stock of the ancient Egyptian, and is repre- sented at the present day by the Somali, the Gala, and some of the blood of Abyssinia and of Nubia, and perhaps by the peoples of the Sahara Desert. The Negro who first reached Uganda was an ugly dwarfish creature of ape-like appearance, very similar, I fanc}', to the Pygmy-Prognathous type which lingers at the present day in the forests of Western and Central Africa. From some such stock as this, which is the under- lying stratum of all Negro races, may have arisen, in Somaliland, perhaps, the ancestors of the Bushmen-Hottentot grou[), which found its way down through Eastern Africa to Africa south •of the Zambezi, in the western parts of which l^uishmen and Hottentots still linger. Then developed the high-cheek-boned, tall, thin-legged Negro ■of the Sudan, and the blubber-lipped, coarse-featured, black-skinned Negro * And from this i»ossibly the Arab or Semitic type. A I'VG.MV OF TUK CON^;0 I'OKE.ST i7L ANTin^OPDLOGY of the West African coast-lands, and later the Bantu type, which is little else than the West African Negro tinged in varying degrees with the results of Hamitic intermixture (the Ham- ites being either a half-way stage in the evolution of a white man* from the Negro, or an invasion from Asia of a Cau- casian people which ages ago mixed considerably wivh Negroes till it had ac(|uired verv marked negroid characteristics^. At the present day the negro and negroid inhabitants in- digenous to the Uganda Protec- torate may for general jjurposes lie divided into iive races or types, these divisions and group- ings being based mainlv on measurements of the body and other physical characteristics, though to some extent thev are also su[)ported liy community of habits and customs, and even relationships in language. I am fully aware that language is often a misleading guide in anthropological classification. A Xegro may be found speaking an Aryan language or a member of the white race may have adopted a form of speech usually associated with .'Mongolian men. Still, I should say that in about six cases out of ten, especialh in the minor divisions of human- ity, ct)nununity of language accompanies physical characteristics held * 1 write advisedly "a" white man, because white races may have arisen twice or thrice or four times iiulcjietuleiitly from Mongol, Negro, and the Neanderthal- Australoicl tyi)e. 250. A I'VdMY OK THK COX(;0 FOKErST ANTHROPOLOGY /•> in common. Thus Dr. Shruhsall, in analysing mv anthropometrioal observations, has discovered an interesting fact in regard to the two sections of the Kavirondo people who dwell in the Central and Jlastern Provinces of the Uganda Protectorate. For some time past it has been observed that one section of the Kavirondo people spoke a languau-e which was practically identical with the Nilotic Acholi tongue, while the other folk in the Kavirondo country used Bantu dialects, the languages of the two sections being as far apart as English and Turkish. Now in all the Kavirondo people speaking a Nilotic language, Dr. tShrubsall has found that N.\ ri\ES OF \VK> I I If Mtiiig Dwarfs of the ( oiigo Forest. To these succeeded invaders of the big black* Bantu Xegro race, a Negro differing only slightly from the well-known West African type, but -Jl. A BANTU NEGRO' MXYAMWEZIl tempen d in varying degrees of intermixture with Hamitic negroid races from the northern half of Africa. This Bantu type furnishes the main element in tlie })opulation of the ^^'estern, L'ganda, and Central Provinces, * Often chocolate-colour in Pygmies. kill, l)nt called black in contrast to the reddish vellow ANTHROPOLOGY 481 and is usually, but not always, associated with the speakini^ of Bantu languages, an exce})tion to this rule being the people of Karaniojo, in the A IIANir .NKl.l north-eastern part of the Central Province. This folk s})eaks a language related on the one hand to ^Nlasai, and on the other to the Bari of the >.'ile, but its physical characteristics differ wholly from those of the Sfik, .Masai, and Nile Negroes, and agree closely with the Bantu type. Sir H. M. 482 ANTHROPOLOGY Stanley, amongst others, for some reason difficult to understand, set himself with such vehemence some years ago to denounce the use of the term " Bantu " and to deny that there was any homogeneous Negro type which could he divided off from the other Negro families under that designation, that many w^riters on Africa lost courage, and although it was impossible, in deference to the wishes of Stanley and others, to give up the use of the word '■ l^)antu"" as representing the most clearly marked and homogeneous division of African languages, the use of the same word to describe a type of Negro like the Zulu Kaffir, native of the Congo, or of South Ontral Africa was abandoned. Eecentlv, however, owing to the researches of Dr. Shrubsall,* who has examined a large number of skulls of Bantu Negroes and has compared them with other sections of the Negro race, such as the people of Ashanti (as i-epresenting a West African type), the Nile Negroes, and the Masai, I have come to the conclusion that amongst most of the Negroes who speak Bantu languages there are more physical characteristics shared in common ^between, say, the Muganda and the Zulu, the native of Angola and of Nyasaland), than is the case between any of these people and the folk of West Africa and the Upper Nile I am therefore encouraged once more to speak of the Bantu type as a physical distinction as well as ap])lying to that sharply defined family of languages. Dr. Shrubsall considers that the average Bantu represents a Negro stock like that of the west coast of Africa, which has received more or less intermingling with negroid races who have invaded the southern half of Africa in ancient and modern times from various points between Somaliland on the east and Senegal on the west. It is probable, however, that the Hamitic intermixture Avith the full-blooded Negro which has created the modern Bantu type has come almost entirely from the northern parts of the L'ganda Protectorate, though it may have penetrated due west to the vicinity of the Cross Kiver (Old Calabar) and south to Zululand. Every now and then there are specimens in average Bantu tribes who resemble Congo Dwarfs, others who are hardly to be told from the most exaggerated type of West African on the coast of Guinea, while others, again, have the clear-cut profile, the finely developed nose and European features of the Hamite. The average Bantu, however, resembles very much the picture which I give here of a Bantu Kavirondo from the Nzoia Kiver. The third element in the Uganda population is the Nilotic Negro. This is a tall type of man with long legs but poorly developed calves, rather prominent cheek-bones, but not as a rule a repulsive physiognomy or a great degree of prognathism. The Nile Negro constitutes the bulk of the population in the valley of the White Nile from Lake Albert Nyanza * Of St. Bartholomew's Hospital and the Anthropological Institute. 263. A_GOOD-I.OOKl.\(; TYPE OF UANTU : A NATlVi; Of KAVlKOXllO (KAKVMElJA; 48A ANTTTEOPOLOGY down to within a couple of Imndred miles of Khar- tum, and from the western slopes of the Abyssinian TMateau across the Bahr- al-Gliazal to ^^'adelai and J^ake Chad. The type may even extend through Hausaland towards !>ene- gambia/' Here and there, of course, there has been intermixture, ancient or recent, witli Hamites, and consequently the result may be an improvement in physical lieauty ; or tliere has been mingling with the Pygmy-Progna- thous, or the West African, Negro, or the Bantu. From these crosses arise trilies like the Xyam- Xyam, theLendu, and the -Aladi. This Nilotic Xegro type penetrates south- eastwards into the Uganda Protectorate, and has left an isolated colony in the countries round Kavirondo Bay. The fourth of these racial divisions is the Alasai, a section which stands very much apart from other Negro races. Perha2)S on the whole its physical appearance may be explained by an ancient intermixture between the Hamite and Negro, followed by a period of isolation which caused the Masai to develop special features of their own. Pelated to the 3Iasai are the Sfik-Turkana — the tall, almost gigantic tribes that dwell between Lake Baringo and the north-west of Lake Kudolf — and the Nandi-Lumbwa, with their oiishoot, the somewhat mongrel tribe of Andorobo. The tifth and last amongst these main stocks is the Hamitic, which * -Many of the Hausa and of the Kaiiuri (Boniu) are .strikingly like the Nile Negroes in aiipearance. Iliil.l Sll.L Mj ANTHROPOLOGY 485 is negroid rather than Negro. 'I'his is the division of African peoples to whicli the modern Somali and (iala belong, and of wiiich the basis of tlie })0[)ulation of ancient Egypt consisted. These Ifamites are i-epresented bv the remarkable l^ahima aristocracy of the western portions of the Uganda Protectorate, and possibly by certain tribes at the north end and on the east coast of Lake Kudolf. ()f conrse the Bahima of Western Uganda have mingled to some extent ^vitll the Negro races amongst whom tliev dwell, and the descendants of these unions have influenced the modern type with Negro characteristics that are slightly more marked than is the 205. HIMA AM) BANTU (1) Uinia of Ankole. (i) Jluiro of Ankule. case amongst the Somali or the ancient Egyptians. The head-hair of the Bahima is often quite woolly, though it may grow longer than it would in ]iurely Negro races. Yet there are individuals among the Bahima who, woolly liair notwithstanding, are nearer to the Egyptian type in their facial features and in the paleness of their skins than is the case even amongst Gala and Somali. If deductions from native tradition and legend are trustworthy to any extent, the Bahima entered what is now the Uganda Protectorate from the north-east between two and three thousand years ago, remaining for several centuries in the Laugo { Acholi) countries east of the Victoria Nile. But the ancestors of the Baliima were probably only the last in a series of Hamitic invaders of Negro 486 ANTHROPOLOGY Africa. \ vU though in tin's way superior races coinintr from the more arid countries of Southei-u Abyssinia and (Jalaland lia\e continually leavened the mass of ugly Xegroes |iullulating in the richlv endowed countries between and around the Nile lakes, it is very doubtful whether the ancient Egyjitiaiis e\er penetrated directly u}) the Nile beyond the vicinity of Fashoda. or had any direct intercourse with I'ganda (though their traders may liave gone south-westward towards the P.ahr-al-(fhazal). l\ather it would seem as thougii ancient Kgy]it traded and communicated directly with what is now Abys-^inia and the Land of Punt (Somaliland), and that the Hamitic peoples of tliese countries facing the Ked Sea and Indian Ocean carried a small measure of Egyptian culture into the lands about the Nile lakes. In this way, and through Uganda as a half-way house, the totally savage Negro received his knowledge of smelting and working iron, all his domestic animals and cultivated plants (except those, of course, subsecjuently introduced by Arabs from Asia and Portuguese from America), all his musical instruments higher in development than the single bowstring and the resonant hollowed log, and, in short, all the civilisation he possessed before the coming of the white man — ^loslem or Christian — 1,000 years ago. The establishment by sea of gold-working coloniesof South Arabians in Southern Zambezia, that commenced to take place perhaps 2,500 years ago, in- troduced a local civilisation which did not spread to any ajipreciable extent, perhaps because it was planted among brutish Hottentots and ap>isli Bushmen. These Sabsean colonies in South-Eastern Africa were finally swamped between the fifth and se\f'nt]i centuries of the present era l»y the l^)antu — at any rate by the Zulu — invasion of Southern Africa. Their influence, from whatever cause,* •«■ Perhajis because the trend of Negro and negroid migrations and race move- ments has always been— with only two well-known exce])tions — the eastward march of the Fulahs and the northward raids of the Zulus — from north to south and from east to west, and it would be ditticnlt h)r foreign influence to travel against the current. 1' MI'OKOKO PLATE VIII UGANDA PROTECTORATE CHARACTER AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE NATIVE RACES. PLATE VIII ANTHROPOLOGY 487 was singularly restricted and fruitless, and died out, leaving no permanent legacy of religious beliefs, arts, and industries, domestic animals, or cultivated ])lants among the Xegro races. The Negro, in short, owes what little culture he possessed, before the advent of the ^Moslem Arali and the Christian white man, to the civilising influence of ancient Egypt; but this influence (except a small branch of it in the Bahr-al-Ghazal) travelled to him, not directly up the White Nile,* but indirectly, through Abyssinia and Somaliland ; and Hamites, such as the stock from which the Gala and Somali sj^rang, were the middlemen whose early traffic between the Land of Punt and the countries round the Victoria Nvauza was the main, almost the sole, aijencv by which the Xesfro learnt the industries and received the domestic animals of Kgypt, and by which the world outside tro})ical Africa first heard of the equatorial lakes and snow mountains. REMARKS OX THE ANTHROPOMETRIC OBSERVATIOXS MADE BY SIR HARRY JOHXSTOX and MR. D0GGP:TT; With thk said Observatioxs keduced to Tabular and Comparative Foum By frank C. SHRUBSALL. M.B., M.B.C.P., Fellow of the Axthropological Ixstitl'te. The antbroponietric observations fall naturally into two groups, dealing with the proportions of the head and body respectively. The measurements of the cranium taken comprise the maximum length and breadth and the vertical projection from the vertex to the tragus of the ear. These enable an estimate to be formed of the size and sha]ie of the head jirojier. The tal)le of measurements appended shows that the largest individual heads are to be met amung the Masai, Karamojo, and Bahima, the smallest among the Acholi and the Congo Dwarf people. By adding together the three dimensions, length, breadth, and height, and dividing by three, a number known as a modulus is oljtained, which expresses the average dimension, and the volume is found to vary proportionately with this. From this it would appear that the Lendu have the smallest and the Masai the largest skulls in the series examined. Greater interest attaches to the relative inojtortions of the different dimensions, and esi^ecially to the cephalic index, obtained by multii)lying the maximum breadth by 100 and dividing by the maxinuim length ; a similar index is also constructed to show the relation of the length and height. The average results for this series are shown in the table appended. The longest, most dolichocephalic head, occurs among the Lendu (index 69), the broadest among the Sfik (index S4). The index numbers are divided into groups, heads with an index of 7.') or under beuig known as dolichocephalic, those between 7.") and Hi) as mesaticephalic, and those of 80 * Doulitless because the Xile of I'ganda in those days created vast, untraversable swami)S between Fashoda and the fourth degree of north latitude. VOL. II. 2 488 ANTHROPOLOGY and over as bracliycephalic. The distribution of the series now under examination in these groujis is as follows : — Tf![I!K Doi.ICIlOCEPIlALIC. MESATICEI'HALIC. Bracuvcephalic Banande .... • — 2 Banibute .... 1 4 3 Baaniba .... — 1 1 Baganda .... 7 1 — Basoga . . . . 2 2 — Bahima .... 4 1 — Wanyaniwezi . 2 4 — Swahili . . . . " 1 — — Kavirondo, Bantu speech . 1 2 1 Kavirondo, Ja-luo speech . — 4 — Acholi, Bari, Aluru . 2 3 1 Lendu .... 2 4 — Karamojo .... 4 1 — Suk 5 4 1 Masai .... 6 2 — Andorobo .... 3 8 — KamAsia .... 1 3 1 Nandi .... 5 2 — These results may be usefully compared with Count Schweinitz's (1) observations on living natives of German East Africa, and with Mense's (2) studies of the people of the Middle Congo, expressed in similar tabular form below. 1. " Zeitschrift flir Ethnologic," 1893. 2. „ „ „ 1887. Tribe. Dolichocephalic. Mesaticephalic. Brack ycephalic ^ast Africa. Wagogo 7 6 — Wangoni 9 5 2 Wanyema . 4 2 2 Wanyaniwezi 3 1 1 Watusi 2 2 — Wasukuma . 3 7 — Wasinja 7 4 — Wasiba 5 2 ^^ 40 29 5 Congo. ^ ^ "^ Bateke 30 16 — Bayansi 6 8 2 Bakongo 8 4 — Bangala 10 5 — Balali 3 1 — 57 34 2 Bantu Crania (Shrubsall) 90 30 T Masai Crania (Virchow) 13 3 — From these tables uniformity rather than diversity of head form would seem to be the great characteristic of the African black races, while a broad-headed element can bo seen to ati'ect the poi)ulation of the Nile Valley and forest zone. Turning from the cranial to the facial skeleton, a greater range of variation becomes api)arent. A similar tabulation of the length-height index is subjoined. Tribe Banande Bambute ClIAM.t:CR!'HAI.U'. (Under t;0.) Orthockphalic. (60-1— 60.) Uypsicephalic. (05-1—70.) 1 IIyperhypsicephalic. (VO'l and over.) 1 2 ANTHllOPOLOGY iH9 Tribe. Cham^cephalic. Orthocephalic. HvPSICEPHAMf. HYPEUHYPSlCKPIIAI.ir. (Under GO.) (60-1— es.) (60 •1-70.) (70'1 and over.) Baamba — — 1 1 Baganda — 1 6 1 Basoga . — — 3 1 Wanyamwezi 1 2 2 2 Bahima — 3 2 Kavirondo, Bantu speech — 3 1 Kavirondo, Ja-hio speech — — 4 Aluru, Acholi, Bari — 2 1 3 I.endu . 1 3 2 1 Karamoio 1 1 3 Suk ". — 3 3 2 Masai . — 3 4 1 Andorobo — 1 3 7 Kaniasia — 1 3 1 Nandi . 1 — 3 3 compared with .Schweinitz Wagogo 3 4 6 — Wangoni 3 9 3 1 ^\'anyema 2 2 3 1 "Wanyamwezi 4 — — 1 Watusi . 2 2 — — Wasukuma 3 6 1 — Wasinja — 5 4 1 Wasiba . — 5 2 — Considerable importance in anthropometry is attached to a study of the nose. This is described as being negroid (Form No. 7 of Table in Xotes aiul Queries), broad and Hat, with prominent alie in all the series examined save the Masai and the Bahima, among whom it is more ])rominent and more arched. The various measurements are most easily contrasted by means of the nasal index obtained by dividing the nasal breadth lietween the ala', by the height from the root of the nose to the sejitum, and multijdying the quotient by lUO. This index also may be divided into groups, and the distribution among them of the individuals examined during .Sir H. H. Johnston's travels is as follows : — Lepiorhise. Mesorhine. Pl. LTVRHINE. Hyper- Ulira- Tribe. PLATYRHINE. PLATYRHINE. (under 69-4.) (69-5- 81-4.) (81 •5-S7 •8.) (s- ••;)_108-9.) 1 4 (10i» and over.) 1 3 Banande Bambute ^^ 1 Baamba — — 2 — — Baganda — — — 7 1 Basoga . — — 1 3 1 AVanyamwezi — — — 5 2 Bahima — 3 — 1 1 Kavirondo, Bantu speech • — — — 3 1 Kavirondo, Ja-luo speech . 1 1 2 — Lendu . — — — 3 4 Acholi, Bai i, Aluru — 1 2 3 — Karamojo — — 1 4 1 ,Suk '. 1 2 2 5 ■ — ]Masai . 1 3 2 1 — Andorobo — 8 2 1 -- Kamasia — 2 2 1 — Xandi . — 1 2 4 — By this means a group comprising the Suk, Masai, Andorobo, and to a less degree the Xandi, is clearly .separated off from the Bantu, Baganda, Basoga, Wanyamwezi, and 490 ANTHROPOLOGY Kaviiondo. It is iiiterestinahima. though the tallest individual actually measured (1887 mm.) belonged to the Logbwari tribe. The ^fasai and Nilotic negroes are decidedly taller than their neighbours, next in order being the Karamojo, the Andorobo, Nandi, and Bantu tribes, forming a group of moderate height intermediate between these and the Dwarf peo))le. The s])an in most cases is relatively greater than in Europeans, ]n-obably because of the ]iro]iortionately greater lengtli of the forearms in the negro races, the Suk forming a notable excejition, being somewhat narrow-chested. The umbilicus in nearly all cases is a little above the centre of the body ; the Dwarf jteoples, however, stand out ]ironiinently, for in them tlic mid i>oint of the body is above, and not lielow. that ANTHROPOLOGY 491 landmark. The head has rather smaller vertical relative dimensions than in the Euroi)ean, the Dwarfs aiid the Nilotic ne^^roes ajiproachinj!; most nearly to our mean canon. The neck is relatively longer and the trunk shorter than in the white races, the latter feature reaching its acme among the Bahima and Masai. fJotli limbs are relatively increased, but whereas in the ui»i)er limb the excess is in the distal segment, in the lower it is in the proximal. The hands are smaller and the feet often relatively larger than those of Eurojieans ; considerable racial variation, however, occurs. The Masai have hands and feet both absolutely and relatively large. The Dwarf peoples, Nilotic negroes, Ja-luo-speaking Kavirondo, Kamasia, Xandi, and JSiik have relatively smaller hands and feet than the average white, while the Bantu peoples in the series, the Lendu, Karamojo, and Andorobo, have smaller hands but larger feet. Should more extended observations confirm the present series, the relative pro- portions of the limbs and of the hands and feet would afford valuable evidence towards a classification of the peoples of the Uganda Protectorate. Applying the above-mentioned facts to jairposes of classification as far as can be made out from the limited material at present at our disjjosal, a few groups can be distinguished. The Bamhute, Bnamha, and Bawinde form a class to themselves, characterised by a l)rachycepha]ic skull, broad depressed nose with a high index, flattened face, narrow chin, small ears, short stature, slender limbs, and small hands and feet. The Masai, who are tall, dolichocephalic, mesorhine, with a low bioculo-na.sal index Avith relative great span, long lower limbs, feet and hands relatively greater than Europeans, though their feet are relatively smaller than those of the Bantu group. The Acholi and Bari : tall, mesaticephalic, platyrhine, with a small bioculo-nasal index, relatively long lower limbs, legs, and forearms, but small feet and hands. A grou}) somewhat less well defined than the foregoing, comprising the Barfanda, Basoga, Wani/amu'ezi, intermediate in most respects, yet with close mutual agreement, ■with relatively large feet and small hands. A few other groups remain to be discussed. The Kavirondo fall into two series, those of Bantu speech and those of Ja-luo speech, the physical characters of the two approximating to the Basoga and Acholi groups respectively. The Lemlu in most features would seem to lie intermediate between the Nilotic negro and the small races of the Congo Forest zone. In stature and in the jn-oportions of the limljs they agree with the Acholi, in face and ears they more closely resemble the Bambute. In cephalic index and the relatively large size of the feet they agree with neither. The Karniiwjo in their liodily proportions would ap]iear to closely resemble, if they have not affinities with, the Bantu-speaking group. In their cranial and facial characters they seem to be intermediate between the Bantu and the ^Masai, though in the pro])ortioiis of their limbs and the size of the hands they diti:'er widely from the latter peojile. The Snk stand in a somewhat similar relationship to the Acholi. The Kamasia, Xandi, and Andorobo are a somewhat aberrant grouj) with inter- mediate characters best expressed in the tables. This is a very heterogeneous grouj), combining characteristics of other negro tyjies. They ai'e obviously a peo])le of mixed origin. The Bahima are distinguished from the other groups mainly by the prominence and length of the nose. In this feature they approach the European or Hamite. The lower part of the face is narrower than the average negro, the ears approach the Eurojiean type, and the head is actually larger than in the average negro. In short, in many respects they are negroid rather than negro. In other measurements than those instanced they api^roximate pretty closely to the Bantu. 102 ANTHROPOLOGY AvEKAGE Indices Calculated from TEIBE Bambute. 6c? Bambute. 6c? Banasde. 2c? Baamba. 2c? Baganda. Basooa. 4c? Kavirondo. >. umber and Sex . 3c? 5 ? Bantc- Speaking. 4c? Ja-luo- Speaking. 4c? Cephalic 787 79-4 74-4 72-6 75-4 76-4 77-5 Length-height 667 68-4 66-0 68-4 69-2 69-5 72-4 Nasal 1097 105-8 93-9 1037 106-1 104-1 86-6 Bigonial 65-2 677 75-3 737 8O-5 80-3 79 3 Bioculo-nasal .... 113-9 115-6 127-0 115-3 118-3 110-4 114-8 Aural 56-9 57-0 69-6 64-4 62-6 59-0 62-3 Modulus 1527 154-1 158-3 150-1 1567 157-8 161-2 Average Peopobtions of the Different Segments of the j Banande. 2 C? TRIBE Bambute. 6 c? Bambute. 6 c? Baamba. 2 c? Baganda. Basooa. 4c? Kavirondo. Wan- YAM- WEZI. 6c? Lesdu. Number and Sex . 3c? 5 ? Bantu Speech. 4c? Ja-luo Speech. 4c? Vj" Actual stand ng height 1452 1497 1692 1560 1685 1722 1791 1732 1711 Head . 13-2 13-3 12-6 12-9 120 — — 12-5 12-4 Neck . 6-2 57 5-4 5-1 5-5 — — 4-7 5-1 Trunk . 31-0 32-0 32-4 32-9 32-4 — 31-8 30-8 Span . 103-5 104-2 107-2 104-1 106-5 — — 103-0 106-1 Upper limb 47-8 47-8 48-4 47-5 48-5 47-8 47-4 46-9 48-8 Arm , 19-6 19-2 19-3 19-2 19-4 — 18-4 187 Forearm 17-1 17-6 17-9 17-6 18-3 — — 17-9 19-0 Hand . 1 11-1 10-9 11-1 10-9 10-7 11-1 10-8 10-6 11-1 Lower limb ! 49-6 49-3 497 49-1 50-1 50-5 53-0 50-9 51-6 Thigh . 24-0 23-9 24-1 239 24-1 — — 24-8 26 0 Leg 19-9 20-1 20-2 20-1 20-3 — — 21-2 21-1 Foot . 14-5 14-6 15-4 14-9 15-1 15-3 14-6 15-6 15-4 Breadth of si aoulders . 22-9 23-3 24-2 23-0 237 — — 22-8 24-9 Breadth of hips . 16-9 17-2 17-7 19-1 17-0 — — 17-4 17-3 Height of umbilicus . , 58-4 58-8 627 59-9 60-3 — — 60-3 61-0 (xirdle index 74-2 74-0 73-3 82-8 71-5 — — 76 5 69-5 Antebrachial index 87-2 917 927 917 94-3 — — 97-3 101-6 Tibio femoral index . 1 82.9 84-1 83-8 84-1 84-2 — — 85-5 81-2 ANTHROPOLOGY {[y.i Measurements of the Head. Wan- Lendi-. ACHOI.I. Bari. Ic? Kara- MOJO. 4c? SuK. 9S Masai. AXDOROBO. 8(? 3 ? Kam- ASIA. Nandi. 5 (J Baiiima. wEzr. 6(? ^C? 4 ? 'r>6 3? 3(? 757 73-6 741 78-1 73-3 76-3 73 3 75-9 76-0 76-2 78-0 72-8 731 65 -3 60-3 65-9 71-8 62-5 68-1 66-5 67-6 70-0 73-2 07-3 68-8 65 3 98-8 1127 105-6 867 897 84-3 82-6 76-9 83-6 77-6 81-0 88-5 92-0 73-5 67-4 70-3 74-7 75-4 70-8 74-3 80-8 76-5 79-3 69-4 742 70-0 120-4 121-4 110-9 121-0 126-0 118-1 116-4 117-3 123-6 1217 128-8 130-7 140-5 63-3 54-8 587 65-6 63-6 66-9 — — — — — 58-4 156-3 150-5 153-4 158-1 157-0 1573 159-9 153-5 156-2 146*9 155-8 155-9 1594 Body to the Standing Height = 100. Lexdu. ACHOLI. 2c? BARr. 1 C? Kaka- MOJO. 4c? SUK. 9c? Ma SAI. Anixjrobo. Kam- ASIA. OC? Nandi. 5 S Bahima. 3 C? 3 ? 8 C? 3 ? Proportion (TOPINARD.) 1621 1763 1725 1716 1778 1642 1663 1530 1692 1680 1847 — 12-6 13 2 119 12 3 12-6 13 0 13-5 12-6 12-5 127 12-2 13-3 5-3 37 4-5 47 4-9 4-9 5-0 4-8 5-1 51 6-2 4-2 32-2 30 6 32-1 29*5 287 28-0 30-4 31-8 29-5 31-0 29-1 35-0 104-4 105-5 105-8 101-9 107-3 102-6 103-4 99-7 107-1 103-7 105-5 104-4 47-5 47-8 48-8 46-7 46-5 47-7 47-4 45-9 48*4 47-1 48*0 45-0 187 18-9 19-8 19-1 176 19-1 I8-9 18-4 19-6 18-9 19-3 19-5 17-8 18-4 18-0 17-4 16-9 167 17-3 16-8 17-9 17-4 17-8 14-0 11-0 10-5 10-9 10-3 12-1 12-0 11-3 J 0-6 10-8 10-9 10-9 11-5 49-9 53-2 51-4 52-9 54-1 55-0 51-3 50-7 52-9 512 519 47-5 24-3 25-4 25-1 263 26-9 26-5 25-4 24-2 26-7 25 0 25-5 20-0 21-9 22-1 21-3 21-8 21-9 22-3 20-7 217 20-9 21-3 22-3 230 147 147 15-6 147 15-0 14-3 157 14-4 147 14-8 15-2 15-0 22-6 23-4 23-0 22-8 23-8 22-4 23-4 21-6 23-8 22-9 22-2 23-0 24-4 17-1 17-9 16-9 17-8 18-3 17-4 17-6 17-4 17*1 177 18-8 61-4 61-5 60-9 60-8 61-6 637 60-7 62-0 62-0 61-9 59-8 600 80-8 73-0 78-1 743 74-9 817 74-0 817 730 74-8 80-4 817 95-2 97-3 90-9 91-1 96 0 87-4 91-5 91-3 91-3 92-1 92-2 — 90-1 87-0 84-9 82-9 81-4 84-2 81-5 89-2 78-3 85-2 87 -4 — 11)1 AXTHROrOLOGY T1U15K Banande. ^1 2^ B.AMBUTE. Numbt-r .... 3 4 5 6 7 8 Age 40 45 30 34 35 20 22 20 Sex 6 6 6 6 c? 6 S s Standing height .... \-ur) 1460 1418 1428 1472 1523 1438 1434 Height of heacl from vertex to \ chin .... j 192 210 174 193 205 206 176 195 lA^ngth of neck in front 83 — 1 t 91 90 89 93 102 Length of trunk .... 0.34 507 453 470 482 449 450 397 Span of arni8 .... 1630 1541 1436 1532 1548 1559 1443 1501 Length of n])per limb . 738 688 686 707 702 737 659 675 Length of arm .... 284 245 273 296 286 308 281 265 Length of forearm 284 298 254 242 253 262 225 252 Length of hand .... 170 145 159 169 163 167 153 158 J.,ength of lower limb . 766 702 714 674 695 779 719 740 Length of thigh .... 377 334 344 320 328 385 350 369 I..ength of leg . 306 (?) 288 282 285 308 287 288 Length of foot .... 234 204 194 (?) 219 220 201 220 Height from internal malleolus) to ground ... j 83 (?) 82 72 82 86 82 83 ^laximum breadth of shoulders . 360 3f.9 302 333 360 369 313 318 ^faximum breadth of hips . 271 275 230 255 255 266 231 240 Height to umbilicus . 931 881 826 826 850 905 835 849 Circumference of chest 780 800 700 730 745 760 702 678 Minimum supra-malleolar cir- 1 cumference of leg. . J Maximum supra-malleolar cir-\ cumference of leg . . j 193 ■ 175 323 285 170 170 i 162 I 193 160 160 245 260 280 290 241 230 Projiortions to heirfltt = = 101 _ Head . .' . . 12-2 14-4 12-3 13-5 13-9 13-5 12-2 13-6 Neck . 5 3 — 5-4 6-4 6-1 5-8 6-5 7-1 Trunk . 339 34-7 31-9 32-9 32-7 29-5 31 -3 27-7 Span 103-8 105-5 101-3 107-3 105-2 102-4 100-3 104-7 T Pl>er Innb . 46-9 47-1 48-4 49-5 47-7 48-4 45-S 47-1 Arm 18-0 16-8 19-3 20-7 19-4 20-2 19-5 18-5 Forearm 18-0 20-4 17-9 169 17-2 17-2 15-6 17-6 Hand . 10-8 9-9 11-2 11-8 in iro 10-6 iro Lower lind) . 48-6 48-1 50-4 47-2 47-2 51-1 50-0 51-6 Thigh . 239 22-9 24-3 22-4 22-3 25-3 24-3 25-7 Leg 19-4 (?) 20-3 19-7 19-4 20-2 20-0 20-1 Foot 14-9 14-0 137 — 14-9 14-4 14-0 15-3 Breadth of shoulders 22-9 24-6 21-3 23-3 24-5 24-2 21-8 22*2 Breadth of hi] is . 172 18-8 16-2 17-9 17-3 17-5 16-1 16-7 Height of und)ilicns 59-1 60-3 58-3 57-8 57-7 59-4 58-1 59-2 Girdle index 75 3 76-6 76-2 76-6 70-8 72-1 73-8 75-5 ANTHROPOLOGY 495 Bambute. Baamba. 9 20 ? 1292 192 59 412 1329 590 228 230 142 629 301 255 212 73 299 241 751 10 30 ? 1427 204 60 471 1491 666 251 255 160 692 318 296 221 78 328 267 841 700 830 180 — 270 — 14-9 14-3 4-6 4-2 31-9 33-0 102-9 104-5 45-7 46-7 17-6 17-6 17-8 17-9 iro 11-2 47-9 48-5 233 22-3 197 20-7 16-6 15-5 23-1 23-0 187 18-7 58-1 58-9 80-6 81-4 11 45 6 1660 224 58 545 1828 812 323 304 185 833 401 343 267 89 408 301 998 906 210 335 13-5 3-5 32-8 48-9 19-5 I8-3 11-1 50-2 24-2 20-7 16-1 24-6 18-1 60*1 71-7 12 40 1562 218 84 506 1587 748 315 265 168 754 367 324 220 63 364 261 914 750 178 310 140 5-4 32-4 101-6 47-9 20-2 17-0 10-8 48-3 23-5 20-7 14-0 23-3 16-7 58-5 71-7 13 25 s 1613 207 88 554 1719 766 302 283 181 764 361 309 249 94 423 311 975 870 208 345 12-8 5-5 343 106-6 47-5 I8-7 17-5 11-2 47-4 22-4 19-2 15-4 26-2 193 60-4 73-5 14 40 s 1658 210 90 516 1772 807 328 300 179 842 416 338 256 385 278 1015 815 189 321 12-7 5-4 31-1 IO6-9 48-7 19-8 18-1 10-8 50-8 25-1 20-4 15-4 23-2 16-8 61-2 72-2 Bag. ^NDA. 15 16 17 18 19 20 50 24 , 28 30 30 35 c? ? ? ? ? ? 1804 1554 1578 1610 1498 1559 221 206 206 209 195 190 94 80 83 83 77 72 572 507 533 540 476 514 1949 1627 1597 1617 1563 1726 884 769 724 729 707 788 352 317 298 285 278 319 328 298 248 273 260 290 204 154 178 171 169 179 917 761 756 778 750 783 447 372 354 384 364 393 378 317 317 315 309 306 277 233 235 234 227 235 92 72 85 79 77 84 417 356 367 352 349 370 309 311 304 303 277 291 1199 941 939 942 903 944 891 830 888 762 740 803 209 197 194 195 185 175 338 320 318 340 292 307 12-3 13-2 13-1 13-0 13-0 12-2 5-2 5-1 5-3 5-2 5-1 4-6 31-7 32-6 33-8 33-5 31-8 330 108-0 104-1 101-2 100-4 104-3 110-7 49-0 48-8 45-9 45-3 47-2 50-5 19-5 20-4 I8-9 17-7 18-6 20-5 18-2 19-2 15-7 17-0 17-4 18-6 11-3 10-0 11-3 10-6 11-3 ii-5 50-8 49-0 47-9 48-3 50-1 50-2 24-8 23-9 22-4 23-9 24-3 25-2 21-0 20-4 20-1 19-6 20-6 19-6 15-4 15-0 14-9 14-5 15-2 15-1 231 22-9 23-3 21-9 233 23-7 17-1 20-0 19-3 18-8 18-5 18-7 66-4 60-6 59-5 58-5 60-3 60-6 74-1 87-3 82-8 86-0 79 3 ; 78-6 IjASUUA. ""21 48 s 1688 221 80 589 1799 833 326 326 181 798 359 325 257 104 408 303 977 847 184 310 13-1 47 34-9 106-6 49-3 19-3 193 107 47-3 213 19-3 15-2 242 ISO 57-9 74-3 106 ANTHROPOLOGY TRIBE Basoga Kavirondo. NunilxT 22 23 24~^ 25 26 27 28 29 Age 20 5° 29h 30 40 26 25 26 Sex 798 811 825 865 837 815 777 851 Length of arm 330 322 333 363 324 330 305 344 Length of forearm 293 309 309 305 313 295 293 31» Length of hand . 175 180 183 197 200 190 179 188 Length of lower liml> 843 867 866 876 902 859 844 978 Length of thigh . 406 436 423 420 427 432 411 490 Length of leg 333 353 356 357 386 — — 405 Length of foot 252 256 257 248 281 266 257 264 Height from internal to ground nialleoluf 94 78 87 99 89 — — 83 Maximum breadth of i shoulders 393 385 414 425 443 418 401 411 Maximum breadth of hips . 274 286 281 296 324 282 284 286 Height to umbilicus . 1035 1014 1038 1033 1063 994 1001 1130 Circumference of chest 835 864 907 948 982 883 944 891 Minimum supra-malleolar cir-) cumference of leg . . / 165 175 194 205 222 — — 220 Maximum supra-malleolar cir-^ cumference of leg . . / 277 280 316 342 378 345 340 338 Projiortions to heiiild = 100. Head . ; . . . 12-1 107 12-2 13-4 12-8 131 12-6 12-0 Neck . 4-5 7-0 5-8 3-3 5-4 41 4-5 3-8 Trunk . 32-5 307 31-5 323 31-3 31-8 33-3 31-0 Si)an 107-0 1067 105-8 107-9 102-1 105-9 100-2 101-5 V))j)er limb . 48-2 48-3 48-1 50-5 46-8 48-3 45-7 463 Arm 19-9 19-2 19-4 21-2 18-1 19-6 17-9 187 Forearm 17-7 18-4 18-0 17-9 17-5 17-5 17-2 17-3 Hand . 10-6 107 107 11-5 11-2 11-3 10-5 10-2 Lower limb . 50-9 516 50-5 51-1 50-5 50-9 49-6 53-2 Thigh . 24-5 26-0 247 24-5 23-9 25-6 24-1 21-2 Leg 20-1 21-0 20-8 20-8 21-6 — — 22-0 Foot 15-2 15-2 15-0 14-5 15-7 15-8 15-1 14-4 I'.readth of shoulders 23-7 22-9 24-1 24-8 24-8 24-8 236 22-3 I'.readtli of hips . Height of umbilicus 16-5 17-0 16-4 17-3 18-1 167 I6-7 15-6 62-5 60-4 60-5 60-3 59-5 58-9 58*8 61-4 Girdle index 69-7 743 67-8 69-6 73-1 67-5 70-8 69-6 ANTHROPOLOGY m Kavieondo. Wany. IMWEZI. HWAHILI ^39"^ Lendi'. 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 40 41 42 30 35 36 30 30 25 40 35 45 25 28 30 24 (J c? c? c? c? c? (? c? iier liinli Length of arm Length of forearm Length of hand . Length of loAver limb Length of thigh . Length of leg Length of foot Height from internal malleolus! to ground ... J ^laximnm breadth of shoulders . Maximum breadth of hips . Height to umbilicus . Circumference of chest Minimum supra-malleolar cir- V cumference of leg . . . j Maximum supra-malleolar cir- \ cumference of leg . . . I Lendi'. Pro/Kji'tioiis to }u'i . Arm Forearm Hand . I.,ower liml> . Thigh . Leg . . P^^ot lireadth of shoulders lireadth of bins . Height of uml)ilicus Girdle index 100. 43 44 45 20 28 30 ? c? $ 1634 1757 1665 208 209 216 83 82 91 540 534 520 1702 1843 1786 778 850 821 300 326 314 293 337 314 185 187 193 803 932 838 390 469 423 343 386 337 248 270 257 70 77 78 357 429 425 291 308 286 1003 1099 993 775 902 962 193 205 215 302 345 380 127 11-9 13-0 5-8 4-7 5-5 33-0 30-4 31-2 104-2 104-9 107-3 47-6 48-4 49-3 18-4 18-6 I8-9 17-9 19-2 18-9 113 10-6 11-6 49-1 53-0 50*3 23-9 26-7 25-4 21-0 22-0 20-2 15-2 15-4 15-4 21-8 24-4 25-5 17-8 17-5 17-2 61-4 62-5 59-6 81-5 71-8 673 225 78 603 1960 892 367 326 199 9S1 482 428 273 71 444 317 1174 922 205 330 11-9 4-1 32-0 103-9 47-3 19-4 17-3 10-5 52-0 25-5 22-7 14-5 23-5 16-8 62-2 71-4 Aluku. 47 22 ? 1554 192 75 507 1643 715 267 289 159 780 389 318 235 73 327 278 964 770 178 290 12-4 4-8 32*6 105-7 45*4 17-2 18-6 10-2 50-2 25-0 20-5 15-1 21-0 17-9 62-0 85-0 48 20 ? 1588 206 51 532 1676 779 318 286 175 799 376 338 230 85 307 277 1011 760 178 283 13-0 32 33-5 105-5 49-1 20-0 18-0 11-0 50-3 23-7 21-3 14-5 19-3 17-4 63-7 90-2 ACHOLI. 49 36 $ 1697 225 62 509 1810 811 317 314 180 901 443 361 254 385 282 1020 810 190 340 13-3 3-7 30-0 IO6-7 47-8 18-7 I8-5 10-6 53-1 26-1 21-3 15-0 22-7 16-6 60-1 732 50 40 $ 1802 250 52 535 1913 883 361 333 189 965 461 412 262 92 433 310 1122 923 210 325 13-9 2-9 29-7 106-2 49-0 20-0 18*5 10-4 53-6 25-6 22*9 14-5 24-0 17-2 62-2 71-6 AXTHllOPOLOGY 490 ACHOU. Baei. Karamojo. 8UK. 51 53 5i 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 30 45 30 50 25 25 25 30 3S 60 50 6 ^ ? c? s ? 6 6 s c? (? 1789 1784 1626 1783 1777 1571 1676 1666 1758 1658 1819 221 222 209 202 217 213 193 210 210 200 — 82 81 70 97 75 43 80 62 66 71 — 573 560 490 558 569 493 543 548 553 524 506 1855 1791 1750 1889 1852 1598 1780 1780 1771 1719 1806 832 830 783 886 864 738 825 796 826 774 837 320 334 326 364 358 303 333 317 339 315 357 324 317 279 330 316 272 303 296 312 296 293 188 179 178 192 190 163 189 183 175 163 187 913 92] 857 926 916 822 860 846 929 863 1019 437 438 397 454 454 410 414 411 450 414 538 393 403 390 382 376 333 362 351 394 371 403 259 254 241 273 276 208 264 261 245 250 247 83 80 70 86 86 79 84 84 85 78 78 419 417 398 378 416 357 378 416 382 395 405 311 307 334 314 317 288 298 309 290 289 301 1107 1103 1009 1081 1074 958 1029 1028 1103 1013 1051 873 870 883 831 899 839 817 922 870 840 800 201 217 179 208 212 182 220 198 200 190 200 358 340 326 333 335 307 357 350 320 325 298 12-4 12-4 12-9 11-3 12-2 13-6 11-5 12-6 11-9 12-1 4-6 4-5 4-3 5-4 4-2 2-7 4-8 3-7 3-8 4-3 — 32-0 314 30-1 31-3 32-0 31-4 32*4 32-9 3iUiiil)t.'r 64 65 66 67 68 69 "70" 71 Age 60 25 30 30 25 42 30 20 Sox s s s s ? (? s c? Strtiuliiig lu'iglit . 1698 1646 1670 1792 1669 1858 1781 1654 Height of lu-ad tKun cliiii vortex to) 196 196 231 227 227 218 231 203 Li'iigth of luok in front 95 77 70 79 — — 76 101 Lt-ngtli of tinnk .... 526 481 500 519 536 — 506 478 8i>an of arms 1723 1803 1675 1865 1716 1973 1850 1700 Length of upiKr limb 815 826 755 829 792 915 859 769 Leiigtli of arm 338 335 296 322 329 374 348 297 Length of forearm 306 314 287 321 296 309 304 267 I..engtli of hand 171 177 172 186 167 232 207 205 Length of lower linili 881 892 869 967 878 1040 968 872 Length of thigh . 432 451 435 486 441 513 482 430 Length of leg 368 364 352 389 367 — 406 357 Length of foot 242 251 244 263 229 266 273 264 Height from internal to grouml malleolu.sl ( 81 77 82 92 70 — 80 85 Maximnm breadth of j- houlder.s . 362 384 392 422 375 430 451 390 Maximum breadth of hip.s . 280 297 267 295 316 314 320 300 Height to nmbiliens 1006 1038 982 •1118 1045 — 1090 1027 t'iroumference of chest 806 8.^9 793 872 891 885 790 840 Mininnim supra-malleolar eir-\ eumference of leg . . ,/ 178 187 189 195 192 195 200 193 Maximum supra-malleolar cir-\ eumference of leg . . ./ 302 330 302 328 331 340 320 310 Pro port iom to heiqht = 100. Head . 11-5 11-9 13-8 12-7 13-6 11-7 13 0 12-3 Neck . 5-6 4-7 4-2 4-4 — — 4-3 6-1 Trunk . 310 29-2 29-9 29-0 32-1 — 28-4 28-9 Sj.an 101-5 109-5 100-3 104-1 102-8 106-2 103-9 102-8 r]i]ier limb . 48-0 50-2 45-2 46-3 47-5 49-2 48-2 46-5 A rm 199 20-4 17-7 18-0 19-7 20-1 19-5 18-0 Forearm 18-0 191 17-2 17-9 17-7 16-6 17-1 16-1 Hand . 101 10-8 10-3 10-4 10-0 12-5 11-6 12-4 Lower limb . 51-9 54-2 52-0 53-8 52-6 560 54-4 52-7 Thigh . 25-4 27-4 26-0 27-2 26-4 27-6 27-1 26-0 Leg . . 21-7 22-1 21-1 21-7 22-0 — 22-8 21-6 Foot 14-3 15-2 14-6 14-7 13-7 14-3 15-3 16-0 lireadth of shoulder.^ 21-3 233 23-5 23-5 22-5 231 25-3 23-6 llrt-adth of hiiis . Height of imiDilicus 16-5 18-0 160 16-5 I8-9 I6-9 18-0 18-1 o9-2 63 1 58-8 62-4 62-6 — 61-2 62-1 CJinlle index 773 77-3 68-1 69-9 84-3 73-0 71-0 76-9 ANTHROPOLOGY 501 Masai. 72 73 74 75 38 38 20 17 c? 6 ? ? 1710 1888 1741 1583 228 238 218 223 85 80 90 73 511 521 453 429 1722 1907 1811 1603 721 880 831 730 239 308 337 287 273 352 290 251 209 220 204 192 886 1049 980 858 ' 440 535 522 445 364 — 388 — 203 277 250 230 82 — 70 397 450 366 370 312 338 313 282 — 1109 — ' — 870 860 810 220 — — — 330 — — 133 126 12-5 14-1 5 0 4-2 5 2 4-6 29-9 27-6 26-0 27-1 1007 101-0 104-0 101-3 422 46-6 477 46-1 140 163 19-4 18-1 16-0 18-6 lti-7 15-9 ' 122 117 11-7 12-1 , 51-8 55 "6 563 54-2 i 25*7 28-3 30-0 28-1 i 213 — 223 — 14-8 147 144 14-5 232 23-8 210 23-4 18-2 17-9 18-0 17-8 — — 637 — i 78 6 75-1 85-5 762 1 76 77 23? 21 ? c? 1603 167 201 495 791 316 279 196 872 342 224 366 305 800 230 95 489 1779 785 200 866 421 362 255 83 390 300 1007 822 190 — 340 12-5 30-9 49-3 19-7 17-4 122 54-4 21-3 14-0 22-8 190 83*3 135 5-7 29-2 106-1 46-8 11-9 51-6 25-1 21-6 15-2 23-3 17-9 60-0 76-9 78 79 22 26 6 6 1652 1684 228 212 74 95 533 536 1773 1723 805 801 332 318 270 302 203 181 817 841 390 419 i 354 344 257 273 73 78 383 391 276 295 1007 1029 ' 860 860 200 204 300 333 13-8 126 4-5 5-6 32-3 31*8 107-3 102-3 48-7 47-6 20-1 18-9 16-3 17-9 12-3 10-7 49-5 499 23-6 24-9 21-4 20-5 15-6 162 232 232 16-7 17-5 61-0 61-1 72-1 75-4 A.XDOROBO. 81 80 24 6 1665 227 70 511 1705 791 311 292 188 857 429 339 255 89 393 304 1007 855 340 J3 ? 1474 66 465 1427 667 261 252 154 751 369 310 212 330 248 901 690 82 30 1576 83 6 1589 40 ? 1540 192 184 I 218 200 91 497 1600 719 280 267 172 804 373 354 223 333 273 988 770 83 474 1606 742 283 275 184 814 397 324 258 93 362 273 952 812 198 180 . 192 185 285 285 65 501 1554 719 304 251 164 774 368 332 228 329 289 957 755 182 320 I 290 13-6 130 11-7 137 130 4-2 4-5 5-8 52 42 307 31-5 31-5 29-8 325 102-4 96-8 101-5 101-1 100-9 47-5 45 3 45-6 46-7 467 18-7 177 178 17-8 19-7 17-5 17-1 I6-9 17-3 16-3 11-3 10-4 10-9 11-6 10-6 51-5 50-9 510 51-2 503 25-8 250 23-7 25-0 239 20-4 21-0 2-2o 20-4 216 153 14-4 141 16-2 14-8 23-6 22-4 211 22-8 21-4 18-3 16-8 17-3 17-2 18-8 60-5 61-1 627 59-9 621 77-4 75-2 820 75-4 87-8 ■)()L> ANTHllOPOLOGY THTRK . A NDOROBO. K AMASIA (Nandi). Nuinber . 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 Age . 28 40 -5 30 22 38 24 Sex . c? s S 6 s s 6 Standing heiglit 1667 1762 1607 17-.0 1615 1713 1676 Height of head from vei tex to chin 215 260 217 21.") 213 206 206 Length of neck in front 90 — 72 94 72 70 96 Length of trunk .... 516 483 498 499 485 524 517 Si)an of arm.s 1733 1852 1584 1869 1622 1833 1883 Length of upper limb . 800 864 725 842 741 821 847 Length of arm .... 314 361 282 341 289 331 357 Length of forearm .... 293 316 270 314 269 298 318 Length of hand .... 193 187 173 187 183 192 172 Length of lower limb 846 970 820 942 845 913 857 Length of thigh .... 416 486 419 467 437 475 417 Ivength of leg 341 392 306 373 321 352 355 Length of foot .... 259 282 255 256 249 251 243 Height from internal malleolus tc ground 89 92 95 102 87 86 85, Maximum breadth of shoulders . 393 410 393 412 405 382 401 ^Maximum breadth of hips ■289 305 272 3C6 294 296 291 Height to umbilicus 1016 11U5 954 1101 969 1070 1043 Circumference of chest . 832 868 840 848 790 840 903 Minimum supra-malleolar circumfer- ence of leg 189 193 193 195 190 192 193 Maximum suja-a-malleolar circumfer- ence of leg ... . 1 307 328 328 328 300 34(J 327 Proj>rjrtii to hel(iht = 100. Head 12-9 14-8 13-5 12-3 13-2 12-0 12-3 Neck 5-4 — 4-5 5-4 4-5 4-1 5-7 Trunk 31-0 27-4 31-0 28-5 30-0 30-6 30-8 Span 104-0 105-1 98-6 106-2 100-4 107-1 112-4 Ujiper limb 48-0 49-0 45-1 48-1 45-9 47-9 50*5 Arm 18-8 20-5 17-5 19-5 17-9 19-3 21-3 Fc>rearm . 17-6 17-9 16-8 179 167 17-4 19-0 Hand 116 10-6 10-8 10-7 11-3 11-2 10-3 T^ower limb £0-7 55-1 51-0 53-8 523 53-3 51-1 Thigh . . 25-0 27-6 261 26-7 27-1 27-7 24-9 I.c'g . . 20-5 22-2 19-0 21-3 19-9 , 20-5 21*2 Foot 15-5 16-0 15-9 14-6 15-4 14-7 14-5 I'.readth of shoulders 23-6 23-3 24-5 23-5 25 1 22-3 23*9 liieadth of hips 17-3 17-3 16-9 17-5 18-2 17-3 17-4 Height of umbilicus 60-9 62-7 59-4 62-9 60-0 ' 62-5 62-2 ( iirdle index . 736 74-4 66-7 74-3 ; 72-6 77'5 72-6 ANTHROPOLOGY 503 Kamasia Ldmbwa (Xaxdi). ^93 Nandi. (Nandi). ^9^ 100 1 101 jAHIMA 92 94 95 96 97 ^ 98 102 103 104 28 30 24 26 35 50 18 30 30-35 30? 25 40 — U encountered a rather brutish individual in this part of the country, he always turned out to be a ^lunande, but I am not able to say that there was any definite ape-like tribe known ' as " Banande " ; on the'^ con- j^ trarv, whilst here and there .*,,*- prognathous, short-legged in- ' dividuals existed in separate communities in a pariah-like condition, very often they might be the offspring of Bakonjo, ' Babira, Baamba, or Bambuba peoples, who in their ordinary type were decidedly not simian, but who may have mingled in times past with the lowest j. stratum of the aboriginal popu- i lation, with the result that the ape-like type still cropped up by occasional reversion. I should also observe that similar progna- thous, long-upper-lipped, short- legged Negroes reappear, though in a less marked form, among the Bantu people on the western slopes of ]Mount Elgon, in the dense forests clothing the flanks of that huge extinct volcano. The illustration on p. 513 was drawn from an individual whom I found lurking in the forest near the Belgian station of Fort Mbeni, to the west of the Semliki Kiver. His skin was a dirty yellowish brown. He was accompanied by a wife or woman companion, differing little in appearance from the ordinary that individuals like himself were not though they were pariahs dwelling on ''#V /> tjU^ 2fc7. A MINAXDE negroes of the forest. I was told at all uncommon in that district, the outskirts of native villages^ :>^2 PYCniTES AXD FOREST XEGROES almost destitute of any arts or liiiman accomplishments, living to a great extent on the raw flesh of such creatures as thev shot with arrows or trapped in the forest, and also suhsisting partially on wild honey and bee-grubs. The man was timid, and it was very difficult to elicit any particulars from him. He appeared to speak imperfectly the language of the Babira or forest people (a degraded Bantu dialect). So far I have given the re- sult of a general impression on the eye of various travellers when I have spoken of these negroes in the forested regions and border-lands of the Uganda Pro- tectorate being " ape-like." But I should state that the skulls examined, the photographs of the physical appearance studied, the measurements of head and body analysed, do not enable scientific anthropologists to en- dorse the term " ape-like " which has been used by myself and others to describe these negroes of degraded aspect. Dr. Shrub- sail, for instance, though admit- ting the low standing of these examples in the scale of negro development, does not hold that they are appreciablv nearer the fundamental simian stock than is the average Negro. He considers, however, that they offer sufficient general resemblance to the forest Pygmy type to be classed with them, perhaps in a group which I have styled (for want of a better name) the " Pygmy-Prognathous." The resemblance between the Pvofmies and these Banande PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 513 ■would ai)pear to he osteological. Outwardly there is no special likeness between the two groups. Further evidence may show that the aje-like type may crop up in any Negro race, whereas there can be no doubt that the forest Pygmies are a well-marked and distinct type of Negro. Even before the Negro quitted Arabia to invade and occupy the greater part of Africa he may liave developed & Pygmy type, or have had a ten- dency to generate races of stunted stature. Kemains which have been found in Sicily, in Sardinia, and the Pyrenees, including a curious little statuette fashioned by men of the Stone Age discovered in the last- named locality, hint at the possibility of men of this Pygmy Negro type having spread over part of Europe : it has been even hinted by more than one anthropologist of authority that a Dwarf negroid race may have, at one time, existed in Northern Europe, and by an exaggeration in legend and story of their peculiar habits — habits strangely recalling the characteristics of the little Dwarf people of the Congo of the present day — have given rise to the stories of kobolds, elves, sprites, gnomes, and fairies. Like some of the Bushmen (who are, however, an inde- pendent development or an arrested type of Negro) who inhabited South Africa when it was first discovered by Europeans, and who still exist in the south-western part of that con- tinent, like the European and x\siatic races of the early Stone Age, these Negro Dwarfs in bleak or poorly forested regions no doubt lived in caves and holes, and the rapid manner in which they disa[)peared into these holes, together with their baboon-like adroitness in making themselves invisible in squatting immobility — a faculty remarkably present in the existing Dwarfs of the Congo Forest— they gave rise to the belief in the AN "ape-like" NEGKO FROM THE VEHOE OF THE CONGO FOREST: MUBIRA OR MUNANDE oil pyrnriEs and porest negroes exist(Mice of creatures allied to man who could assume at will invisiliility. Traits in the character of tlie Congo Dwarfs of the present day recall irresistibly the tricks of Puck, of Kobin Goodfellow, of the gnomes and fairies of (Icnnan and (Vltic tradition. 270. AX "ape-like" nkuro (.same as no. 269) 271. BAMBUTE PVGMIES FROM THE (.OXGO FOKEST (WEST OE THE SEMI.IKI KIVEH) 51G VYCaiTES AND POllEST NEGROES 'J'lie little pygmies of the Congo Forest do not themselves cultivate or till the soil, but live mainly on the flesh of beasts, birds, and reptiles, on white ants, bee-grubs, and larvje of certain burrowing beetles. Nevertheless,. they are fond of bananas, and to satisfy their hankering for this sweet fruit they will come at night and rob the plantations of their big black agricultural neighbours. If the robbery is taken in good part, or if gifts in the shape of ripe bananas are laid out in a likely spot for the Pygmy visitor who comes silently in the darkness or dawn, the little man will show himself grateful, 272. THREE BAMBUTE PTGMIES and will leave behind him some night a return present of meat, or he will be found to haye cleared the plantation of weeds, to have set traps, to have driven ofiF apes, baboons, or elephants whilst his friends and hosts were sleeping. Children, however, might be lured away from time to time to follow the Dwarfs, and even mingle with their tribe, like the children or men and women carried oif by the fairies. On the other hand, it is sometimes related that when the Negro mother awoke in the morning her bonny, big, black child had disappeared, and its place had been taken by a frail, yellow, wrinkled Pygmy infant, the changeling of our stories. Any one- who has seen as much of the Central African Pygmies as I have, and has noted their merry, impish ways; their little songs; their little dances; their mischievous pranks ; unseen, spiteful vengeance ; quick gratitude ; and prompt return for kindness, cannot but be struck by their singular PYGMIES AND FOIIEST NEGROES 517 resemblance in character to the elves and gnomes and sprites nm-sery stories. At the same time, we mast be on our guard reckless theorising, and it may be too much to assume that the species ever inhabited P^urope, in spite of the resemblance be- tween the stone implements of palaeolithic European man and those of the modern Tasmanians — and the Tasmanians were negroid if not negro. Palfeolithic man in Europe may have been more like the Veddah, the Australian, the Dravidian, the Ainu, than the Bushman or Congo Pygmy. Undoubtedly (to my thinking) most " fairy " myths arose from the contem- plation of the mysterious habits ■ of dwarf troglodyte races linger- ing on still in the crannies, caverns, forests, and mountains of Europe after the invasion of neolithic man. But we must not too widely assume that these ex- tinct Pygmy races were Negroes. ^ They might well have been the dwarfed descendants of eai'lier and less definite human species ; they may have been primitive Mongols like the Esquimaux. All the three species, or sub- species, of Homo have developed separately, repeatedly, and con- currently, dwarf and giant races. Tall peoples have arisen inde- pendently one after the other in Patagonia, in Equatorial Africa, in North Africa, Syria, Northern Europe, and Polynesia. Stunted races have been evolved in several parts of Africa, in . ^ 273. AN MBUTK I'YGMY KKOM liKYd.NH l.l I'A Scandinavia, Japan, the An- (uppeu ituui district) of our against Negro .^X4U^ olS PYCariES AND FOKlvST M:(I1U)ES .-.K t^'m^J daman and Philippine Archi- ]»elagoes, or amongst the Iv-quimaux. I am not even inclined, now, to adv^ocate the theory that the Congo Pygmies of Equatorial Africa are necessarily connected in origin with the South African Bushman. Some Bushmen tribes in South- West Africa, where better food conditions prevail, are scarcely Dwarfs. The Bush- men and Hottentots are obviously closely inter-related in physical structure ; but I can see no physical features (other than dwarfishness) which are obviously peculiar to both Bushmen and Congo Pygmies. On the con- trary, in the large and often protuberant eyes, the broad flat nose with its exaggerated alcE, the long upper lip and but slight degree of eversion of the inner mucous sm-face of the lips, the abundant hair on head and body, relative absence of wrinkles, of steatopygy, and of high, pro- truding cheek-bones, the Congo Dwarf differs markedly from the Hottentot-Bushman type. It is true that some of the Congo Pygmies intercalate their speech with faucal gasps in place of guttural consonants, but this defect in pronunciation need not necessarily contain any re- miniscence of the Bushman click. There is one language spoken in Eastern Equatorial Africa (in the German sphere) which has clicks — the Sandawi. ]5ut this, though it may be a relic of extremely ancient days, when the ancestors of the Hottentots were dwelling AN Ml:l IK l'Vi..MV PYGMIES AND rOREST NEGROES 519 in East Africa, is not at the present time spoken by a people offering 275. A PY(. \l -1 v.-', ' i| I il 1. \i i 1 ic, iPFKU ixrui marked physical resemblance to the Congo Pygmy or to the J?cnth African Hottentot, VOL. 11. 4 )i>0 PYr;:\rTKS axd fouest xegroes In short, it would seem to the ^ii-cseiit writer that there is at present no evidence of anv more rehitionship between the forest Pygmies of 276. A PVfiMY WOJIAX FROM JlIiOGA, WEST OF SEMLIKI Ke may be found to crop up 283. AX MliVTE I'YCMY, ITPEU ITUKl * The resemblance of the iJwarf tyjjes in West Elgon to the Congo Pygmies is ini(iuestionaV)le ; but I am not sure that the Dwarf element in the Doko of North-East Africa and the Andorobo is not of Bushman characteristics. pyct:\iies axd forest negroes r)27 elsewhere, either li\iiig as a se[)arate people or reappearing as a re- versionary type in tril:es of more ty[)ical Negro appearance who in times [last have absorbed ante- cedent Dwarf races. The Pygmies on the verge of the L'gar;da Protectorate offer usually two somewhat distinct types as regards the skin colour, one being a reddish yellow and the other as black- as an ordinary Negro.* The reddish yellow type has a skin which in the dis- tance often looks dull, and this appearance arises from the presence of verv fine downy hody- halr. This hair is not unlike the lanuyo which covers the human fcetus about a month before l)irth, and would almost seem to be the con- tinuation of a fcetal character. The body- hair in question is short and very fine, and is of a yellowish or reddish tinge. Where it grows to any length, as oc- casionally on the legs or on the back, though '^*^ 284. A PIGMY WOJIAX OK THK BABUJA GKOUP, CONGO FOREST (west ok albert EDWARD) * It would seem as though the pure-blooded Pygmy was always of a dirty reddish yellow in skin colour, and was iiivarial)ly covered all over his body with light-coloured downy hair, and that the black type appearing amongst these Dwarfs is due to intermixture with bigger Negro races. 528 PYGMIES AND E0RE8T NEGllOES it may he slightly crimped or wavy, it is certainly not tightly curled. The hlacker type of Pygni}^ also inclines to he hairy on the body, but the ])ermanent body-hair in his case is closely curled, and much like the hair of the head, tliongh tliickcr and more liristly, in the case of _ ^ tlie yellowish Pygmy, the body-hair, though only a})parent on close examination, is found to grow most thickly and markedly on the back and on the arms and legs. That })eculiarly human feature, thick hair in the armpits and in the pubic region, is also present in the yellow Pygmies, but it is remarkable that the hair in these parts is (|uite different from the tine fleecy down on the body, and resembles the hair on the head, chest, and stomach in the black Pygmy type, which, as in all other Negroes, is closely curled. The fine body-hair in the yellow Pygmies is present in men, women, and children. The women of the yellow type also exhibit faint traces of whiskers. The males of tlie yellow and I'laek types develop a little moustache, and sometimes quite a con- siderable beard. I have myself only seen one Pygmy with a beard of any size — perhaps six PYGMIES AXD FOREST XEGROES 529 •^ 'T iuclies long — but in con- versation with these Dwarfs, and with Belgians who hail visited their <^ountry, I was assured that Pygmy men often grow (juite considerable beards. It was further told to me that the Pygmies I was able to examine personally were by no means as hairy as other examples to be met with further away in the recesses of the €ongo Fore>t.* One physical feature (already alluded to) which is common to all the Pygmies, whether black or yellow, and is peculiarly characteristic of this group, is the shape of the nose. There is scarcely any bridge to this organ, the end of which is large and flat ; but the remark- able size of the wings (the cartilage of the nose above the nostrils), and the fact that these wings rise almost as high as the central part of the nose, differentiate the Pygmy markedlv from other Negro physiognomies. -^^- -' ^''^-''^ '''"'-'•^■' "''■''^^ ^™'''' ^^•''''' "'^ -^'^- -'^' Some of these Pvgmies, it may be mentioned, come very near in stature * I would, however, advise my readers to be on their guard, and not to attach too niucli importance to stories of very hairy Pygmies, or to lay too much stress on the tlistinction between black-skinned and yellow-skinned Dwarfs, which seems to be the result of individual, and not tribal, variation. :5() rYr;:\rTE8 axd pouest neguoes to an ordinarv uiuUn'-sizcd negro, bnt wherever this liroad, large-wiuged nose is seen, the individual possessing it either belongs to the Pvgray-Prognathous group bv liirth, or is a member of a superior negro tribe, reverting by atavism to this primitive stock. Another marked feature of the Pygmy- Protrnathous negroes is the loaf) upper lipj, a distinctly simian char- acter. The u[)per lip is not largely everted, as in the ordinary negro, nor is the lower lip perha})s quite so much turned outwards, to show its inner mucous surface. The mouth is large and a[ie'-like, the chin weak and receding, the neck is ordinarily short and weak. It has been men- tioned that the hair of tlie liead is of the closely curled Xegro type, but a curious feature in many of these Pygmies (a feature, so far as I am aware, confined to the yellow-skinned type) is the tendency on the part . of the head-hair to be reddish, more especially over the frontal part of the head. In all the red or yellow-skinned tvpes of Pygmies which I have seen, I have never observed head- hair which was absolutely black ; it varies in colour between greyish greenish brown and reddish. This is* illustrated in mv coloured drawiuij of two Pvgmies. In the blacker t^^pe of Pygmy the buttocks sometimes attain considerable development and prominence, recalling, in a slight degree, a feature which is pushed to an extraordinary exaggeration in the Hottentot-Bushmen race ' ,1^ ii',M:i-, I'liii; i-;i,u;i: i ix ■rm; i.kfti^'ihk O.NK WHO Dllil) IX UG.VXDA IN MAKC'H, I900, AND WHOSE SKELETON IS DESCRIBED ON P. 559) PYGMIES AND POREST NEGROES 531 of South Africa ; but the yellow Pygmy (to judge from those which I have seen) not only never has this feature exaggerated, l)ut, on the contrarv, tends rather to a poor development of the buttocks, this adding considerabiy to his simian appearance ; for, as the late Professor Owen pointed out, the anthropoid apes are '' bird-rumped," without the great development of tlie gluteal muscles characteristic of man, and caused by his erect carriage of the bodv. :):]2 PVd.MIES AND rOllEST NEGROES A Pvgniy'.s arruft are ])roj)ortionately long(M- and tlie legs proportionately shorter than in well-developed Negroes, p]uropeans, and Asiastics. The feet are large, and the toes comparatively longer than in the higher races. There is a tendency in some of the Dwarfs for the four smaller toes of the foot to diverge somewhat from the big toe, and when the feet are firmly planted together, the two big toes turn inwards towards each other. Although these peculiarities of the foot are often strongly marked in the Congo Dwarfs, they are not infrequently seen in other Negro types, and must not be regarded as peculiar to the Pygmies. These Dwarfs are adroit in climbing, and to a slight extent make use of their feet in grasj)ing branches between the big toe and the rest of the toes. The average height of the Pygmy men whom T measured was about 4 feet 9 inches; the average height of the women about 4 feet 6- inches. One male Pygmy was a little over 5 feet ; another, an elderly man, was scarcely 4 feet 2 inches in height. One adult woman only measured 4 feet.* Before concluding this description of the physical aspect of the Pygmies, it should be mentioned that, even when forced to keep them- selves clean (they never wash naturally), they exhale from their skins a most offensive odour midway between the smell of a monkey and of a Negro. The Pygmies apparently liave no language peculiar to their race, but merely speak in a more or less corrupt form the language of the other- Negro tribes nearest to them, with whom they most associate. One group- of the Pygmies on the borders of the Uganda Protectorate, dwelling more- or less to the south of the equator, speaks the Bantu jargon of the Babira. or forest Negroes. The Pygmies dwelling to the north of the equator,, on the border and within the limits of the Uganda Protectorate, speak a dialect of the ]Mlniba language, a non-Bantu tongue in which I can trace no affinities to any other great group of Negro languages, though it is related to jNlomfu, a tongue spoken on the Upper ^yelle. The Dwarf l)ronunciation of the ]Mbuba language differs markedly from that of the ]jambuba themselves. It consists mainly in the substitution for certain consonants, such as " k," of a curious gasp or hiatus, a sound which occasionally approaches a click, and at other times has a rasping, faucal explosion like the Arabic "ain" ( t). They also have a peculiar singing intonation of the voice when speaking which is noteworthy. It consists- usually in beginning the first syllable of a word on a low note, raising the * The Belgians at Fort ]\lbcni gave me the height measurements of four males- ami two female Pygmies which they had taken. These amounted to (in EngHsh measures) 5 feet 1 inch, 4 feet Gj inches, 4 feet 5^ inches, 4 feet 4h inches for the: four males, and 4 feet 0^- inch and 4 feet 1 inch for the women. PYGMIES AND FOREST XEGROES 533^ voice on the pciiultiinate syllable, and lowering it again on the last. It is almost a chant, and expressed in mu-ical notation would appear thus : — Ka lu ke ke Their pronunciation is singularly staccato, every syllable being distinctly and se])arately uttered in a voice which is nearly always low and melodious. The vowel sounds are broad and simple — a, e, i, «, o, n, and ii (pronounced in vulgar English spelling ah, ay, ee, oh. aw, oo : ii is the French n). The Dwarfs are singularly quick at picking up languages. Those that stayed with me at Entebbe in 1900 arrived in January unable to speak any tongue but their own Mbulia dialect. When they left Uganda to return to the Congo Forest in ^lay, they could all prattle in Kiswahili and in Luganda, and we were able thus to converse with one another. A little Dwarf woman who had resided for some six years at Kampiala amongst the Swahili porters spoke perfect Kiswahili with an absolute grammatical correctness. Have the Pygmies any aboriginal tongue of their own ? No clear sign of it has yet appeared. Travellers who have written down the language spoken by the forest Pygmies between Kuwen- zori and the t'ameroons, the Nyam- Xyani coinitry and the Kasai, have only succeeded in showing that the Dwarfs spoke the language of their nearest neighbours among the big agricultural Negroes. The language of l^'chweinfurth's Akka turned out to be only jMahbettu; Stanley's, AVissmann's, Wolf's, Francois's, Kund's Pygmies all talked the Bantu dialect, debased or archaic, of the Bantu Negroes among whom they dwelt. There remained, however, the Pygmies of the Semliki and Upper Ituri forests, along the Nile-Congo water-parting. Dr. Stuhlmann collected a few of their words, and thought for a moment he had hit on the long-looked-for discovery of a Pygmy language, unlike any of the neighbouring forms of speech, until he discovered the dialect the little people were speaking was almost identical with the language of the big; 3y. A DWAKF WOMAN 1-KO.M Till; KAIilKA COINTKY 534 PYCariES AXD rOPvEST NEGROES a(Tricultnnil >ll)iib;i .md Momfu Negroes, a forest race of not particolarly low tvpe which inhabits the crest of the Congo-Nile water-parting, from the upper streams of the Kibale (Welle) to the 8emliki Valley. I, in a measure, 2t,0. A PVCMY f}llLll FKOM .■MBOGA repeated the same discovery and disappointment. I set myself to work to write down the language s])oken by the Pygmies of the Semliki J^orest (knowing nothing then of Dr. Stuhlmann's researches), and compiled the long vocabulary which appears in Chapter XX. -'Here," I thought, "is the PYGMIES AND POREST NEGllOES odo original Pygmy language." But when, in the Congo Forest, I proceeded to write down the Mbuba tongue, its close resemblance to the Pygmy language 291. A PYGMY CHILL) FKOM MliOUA became at once apparent. There do remain, it is true, a few words peculiar to the Dwarfs, and these may constitute fragments of their aboriginal speech. Of course, it might be argued that Mbuba uas their original and VOL. II. 5 536 PYGMIES AND POREST NEGROES special language, and that the Momfu and Bambuba, in invading Dwarf-land, may at one time have been under Dwarf thraldom, and have acquired their speech, just as a tribe of Bantu people — the Berg Dama- ras, in South -"West Africa — were conquered by Hottentots, and have spoken a Hottentot dia- lect ever since. But I cannot sup})ort this argument for several reasons, one being that the Dwarfs speak the ^Ibuba language so im- perfectly that it is as impossible to suppose it to be their original tongue, from which ]Mbuba and ]\Iomfu de- veloped a much more comprehensive idiom, as it would be for a Congo Dwarf to argue that because he found " mean " whites in America dwelling in a prosperous Negro colony, the English they spoke had been by them de- veloped from the '' nigger " dialect of '" Uncle Eemus." It is, of course, on the other hand, a hard thing to believe that prior to the invasion of the great "West Central African forest by the big black agricultural Negroes the Pygmy autochthones possessed no language but inarticulate cries and gestures!* Nevertheless, it would seem to be * I was nmcli struck, and so were my European comitanions, at the expressive gestures used by the Pygmies in L'king out their CDiiversation. One often conversed with them in gestures. •UjJLl -JUjjJ AN .Mi;iri-: PYGMIES AND FOEEST NEGROES 587 a fact that the Pygmie-s, though so distinct a race, have no language peculiar to their race, but, wherever tliej are, speak (often iuiperfectlv) tlie tongue of their nearest agricultural, settled, normal-sized neighbours. Again, it is strange that this little people should speak imjierfectly these borrowed tongues, because individuals transported from the Pygmy inUieu have picked up rapidly and spoken correctl}' Sudanese Arabic, Kunyoro, Luganda, Kiswahili, and Kinyauiwezi. It is, however, less singular an anomaly than the contrast between the brutish lives led by the Pygmies in their wild state — lives, perhaps, in absence of human culture nearer to the beast than is the ■case with any recently existing race of men known to us — and the vivacious intelligence, mental adroitness, almost fairy-like deftness they exhibit when dwelling with Europeans. No one can fail to be struck with the mental superiority they exhibit under these novel cir- cumstances over the big Negro, whose own culture in his own home is distinctly higher than that of the forest Pygmies. The Dwarfs are ■Tnarkedly intelligent, much quicker at divining one's thoughts and wishes than is the ordinary Xegro. But, then, look at the amazing natural intelli- gence of the baboon and the almost human understanding of the ■chimpanzee : both en- dowments to a great extent wasted, unde- veloped, not called forth by their natural sur- roundings. The Semliki Pygmies have a good idea of draiving, and with a sharpened stick can de- lineate in sand or mud BASIUUTE PYlJMIFS 538 PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES the beasts and some of the birds witli whieh they are famih'ar. Drawing, it would seem to n)e, was a very early development of the gesture language, and may have been practised by the earliest human prototyjies almost before they could articulate a definite speech. But thougli the Pvgmv has this innate appreciation of form in him, he has in his natural state but little appreciation of colour, and ignores personal decoration. Almost alone among African races, he neither tattoos nor scars his body, he adorns himself 'ivith nothing (wears no ear-rings, necklace, bracelet, waist-belt, or anklet), unless it may be finger-rings of iron — and these have prolmbly lieen borrowed of late from his bigger and more civilised friends, the ^Ibuba and Baamba cultivators.* The males of all the Congo Pvgmies seen by me were circn/nicised, and all in both sexes had their upper incisor teeth and canines sharpened to a pjoint, after the fashion of the Babira and Upper Congo tribes. In their forest homes they often go naked, both men and women ; yet in the pre- sence of strangers they don a small covering — the men a small piece of genet, monkey, or antelope skin, or a wisp of bark-cloth, and the women leaves or bark- cloth — over the pudenda. They tell me that in the forest they wear nothing, but I cannot say that the Pygmy men struck me as being so callously and unconsciously naked as the Nilotic Negroes, * Some of the Pygmies, liowever, do imitate the agricultural ^Ibuba and Babira Negroes in jdercing their ui)per lips with holes into which they thrust small MAN rv,.^n ii:.,M NKAu 1,1 1'a.nzula's (uiTEu quills, uodules of quartz, or iTLKi j.iviKRT) even tiowers. 294. AN i>l. PYGMIES AXD FOREST XEGROES ry.v.) They have practically oio religion, and no trace of spirit- or ancestor- worship. They have some idea that thunder, light- ning, and rain are the manifestations of aPower, an Entity in the heavens, but a bad Power ; and when (reluctantly) in- duced to talk on the subject, they shake their heads and clack their tongues in disapproval, for the mysterious Some- thing in the heavens occasionally slays their comrades with his fire (lightning). They have little or no belief in a life after death, but sometimes think \aguely that their dead relations live again in the form of the red bush-pig, whose strange bristles are among the few brightly coloured objects that at- tract their attention. They have no settled government or hereditary chief, merely clustering round an able hunter or cunning tighter, and accepting him as law-giver for the time. Marriage is only the purchase of a girl from her fc\ther: polygamy depends on the extent of their barter goods,* but there is, nevertheless, much attachment between husband and wife, and they appear to be very fond of their children. Women generally give birth to their offspring in the forest, severing the navel string with their teeth, and burying the placenta in the ground. The dead are usually buried in dug graves, and if men of any importance, food, tobacco, and weapons are buried with the corpse. * Such as honey, skins, arrow-lieads, tobacco. 295- A i-YGMY CHIKF AM) H1.S 15KOTHEK \«A.MhLTJi). (THE CHlEt' IS THE INDIVIDUAL OX THE LEIT, AND IS 5 FEET I INCH IN height) 540 PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES The Dwarfs keep no domestic animals except (and this not everywhere) priek-eared, fox-yellow dogs similar to those possessed by the Bambuba, -Monifu, and other tribes to tiie north. They never till the ground, nor cultivate any food plant. They are passionately fond of tobacco smoking, and will also take the herb as snuff. The pipes they use are either earthenware bowls obtained in trade from their big neighbours, or the stem of a banana leaf. This is also a pipe in use among the Bakonjo of Ruwenzori, and will be found illustrated in the next chapter. .\s regards food, I have already instanced the meat of beasts and birds which they obtain in the chase. 1 do not think any of them are cannibals — thev repudiate the idea witb horror. They eat the grubs of bees and certain beetles, flying termites, and possibly some other insects, honey, mushrooms, many kinds of roots, wild beans, fruits, and, in short, whatever vegetable food is palatable to man, and procurable by other means than cultivation. Of course they like to obtain grain, sweet potatoes, or bananas from their more civilised agricultural neighbours. Tiiey eat their vegetable food raw; but where they live in friendlv proximity to agricultural negroes, they borrow earthenware pots and boil leaves, roots, and beans over a fire, ^leat is broiled in the ashes. This is their only form of cooking when untouched with outer culture. It is said that the wild Dwarfs (i.e., those that are thus uninfluenced by their more civilised neighbours) are unable to make fire for themselves by the usual process of the wooden drill, or any other means. The tradition among the forest negroes to the north is that several centuries ago, when their ancestors penetrated into the great forest, the Dwarfs were without the use of fire, and ate their food raw. Nowadays (it is said) the " wild " Dwarfs, when requiring to renew their fires, obtain smouldering brands from their nearest neighbours among the agricultural negroes, or steal the same from plantation fires. It is, however, quite conceivable that the Pygmies and other early forms of man may have known and used fire in these tropical forest-lands before they learnt to make it for themselves. On an average, I should say, lightning sets fire to dry stumps and branches, or to huts, about three times a year in every part of the Uganda Protectorate. Fire thus descending from heaven may spread wherever there is fuel to meet it. In savannah regions bush fires may thus be started. ^lan would first be attracted to the wake of the blaze by the roasted remains of lizards, snakes, locusts, rats, and other small or large mammals surprised by the conflagration. P'rom this source he might learn to perpetuate fire for his own sake long before the chipping of flints over moss or the earliest attempts at boring holes with })ointed sticks gave him a clue to the manufacture of flame. Some Pygmies dwelling near the Semliki Kiver are apparently now PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 541 able to shape iron implements and weapons, though from all accounts they seem unable themselves to smelt iron. They obtain the pig-metal from their bigger neighbours by negotiation, and then forge it into the required forms.* I liave reason to believe that some of the Dwarf tribes in the very far interior of the forest do not even use iron, but entirely confine themselves to weapons and implements made of sharpened wood, reeds, or jialm shreds. It is also probable that even in the case of those who now use iron for tlieir axes, knives, daggers, and arrow-heads, the use of this metal is of (juite recent origin, and that all the Pygmies of the Congo Forest until a few hundred years ago (when they were forced more 296. PYGMIES UANCINH into contact with the bigger agricultural negroes from the north and south through the invasion of the Congo Poorest) were unacquainted with the use of metals. I do not think there has been yet found amongst them any trace of stone or flint implements. Their houses are curious little structures not more than tlnve feet high in the centre, roughly circular in shajie. These huts are made by planting the lower ends of long, flexible branches into the soil, bending over the withe or branch until its upper point is also thrust into the soil, thus * This is what the Pygmies tell me ; but Dr. Stuhlmaim, who has carefully observed them, denies that they use a forge in any way. He says they purchase their iron arrow- heads and knives from their neighbours, the agricultural forest Negroes. 542 PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES describing a flattened semi-circle. At the toj) or apex of the hut these withes of the framework cross one another, or occasionally the withes may be bent over, the one parallel to the other, thus forming a somewhat oblong 297. PVGMIES 1)ANC1X(; tunnel. But the round hut is the commoner shape. Withes, reed stalks, or thin branches are fastened horizontally against the circular framework to receive the thatch, which is composed of quantities of large leaves, ])rincipally the leaves of a zingiberaceous plant (Phri/niuvi?) allied to the lianana. Sometimes these leaves mav be affixed in circles bv liendinsf ])ack the lower third of the leaf over the horizontal withes, and pinning the folded leaf by wooden splinters, thus forming a rough ■' tiling " of over- lapping leaves. In any case the Pygmy has only got to throw on enough leaves over his roof to ensure a fair protection within from the tropical rains. A small hole near the bottom is left uncovered, and through this the Pygmy crawls on all fours. There is usually one hut to each grown-up person, man or woman, though husband and wife will sometimes share the same hut. Tiny little huts are usually made for each weaned child. Their musical instruments appear to consist mainly of small drums made of sections of hollowed tree-trunk covered with lizard or antelope skin. They also, however, have trumpets made from the horns of antelopes or the tusks of small elephants. Where they dwell near trilies of su[)erior culture, they like to borrow or obtain stringed bows or other stringed instruments, which they twang with great gusto. As the Dwarfs do not understand the art of twisting fibres or gut into strin^triking the ground with their elbows or the outer side of the thigh, twitching and wagging their round bellies and rocking their whole body backwards and forwards, and all with an irresistible rhythm and bright-eyed merriment. Their upright dances are also full of variety, differing thus from the dull monotony of movement which characterises most Negro dancing. On these occasions their gestures are almost graceful (in some dances) and " stagey," irresistibly recalling (in unconscious parody) the marionette action and affected poses of the short-kilted, brawny- PYGMIES DANCING : A HALT TO t'0X8IUElt THK NEXT EIGUKE limbed Italian ballet-dancers stih to be found wearying London audiences at the Ojiera and in Leicester Square. One at least of the Dwarf dances is grossly indecent in what it simulates, although it is danced reverently 511 PYGMIES AND TOllEST NEGROES and • as if the original molif had been forgotten and the gestures and writhings were merely traditional. Actually I never noticed any liking for deliberate indecency on the part of these Pygmies, who should certainly be 299. PYGMIES EATING ..jil described as strictly observing the ordinary decencies of life, perhaps rather punctiliously. Amongst themselves they are said to be very moral. Their women, however, soon degenerate into immorality when they come into contact with Sudanese or Swahilis. But even then they observe outward decorum and assume an affectation of prudishness. I have referred already to the agricultural forest negroes who dwell alongside the Dwarfs. 2s'ative traditions, as recorded by Schweinfurth and Junker and other early explorers of the Bahr-al-Ghazal region of the Congo watershed, would seem to show that the Congo Dwarfs were far more PYGMIES AND FOKEST NEGROES 5i5 abundant and powerful in former times, and inhabited manv regions along- the water-parting of the basins of the Congo and the Nile, wliere thev are no longer seen. The belief of the present writer is, as alreadv expressed, that the black Negroes of oi'dinary stature, who entered Africa from the direction of Arabia after the invasion of the continent by a dwarf yellowish Negro type, spi^ead at first due west from the Nile to the west coast of Africa, and due south beyond the Nile sources down the eastern half of Africa, being for a long time repelled from any south-western extension by the dense forests of the Congo basin and of that part of the Nile watershed abutting thereon. The pressure of Hamitic and negroid races from the north and north-east forced in time the big black Negroes to advance into the Congo Forest from various points: from Tanganyika and its northern Rift Valley, westwards and north-westwards; from the basin of the Shari and the region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, southwards and south- eastwards. The best distinction to draw between the full-sized agricultural forest negroes on the one hand and the Pygmy-Prognathous negroes on the other is that the former till the soil and cultivate food plants, are " agricultural '" ; 300. PYGMY WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS : DAGGER AND SCABBARD, KNIVES, CHOPPER, ARROWS ^INU QUIVER, A SOFT LEATHER PAD OR GLOVE TO GUARD LEFT HAND WHEN THE ARROW IS BEING SHOT FROM THE BOW, BOW AND ARROWS and the others are not. These agricultural negroes are of decidedly mixed stock, some of them showing traces of the recent infusion of Hamitic blood, side by side with Pygmy-Prognathous characteristics; many belonging to 546 PYGMIES AXD FOREST NEGEOES the Jjiuitu stock (wliich is an ancient blend of West African Negro and Ilaniite); others connected with the Manbettu (.Alombuttu), Xyam-Xyam, and 31adi— all these, again, being races variously composed of crosses between the Nilotic and West African Negroes, dashed with Hamite and Nubian. In language the forest Negroes of the Uganda borderland and the adjoining territory of the Congo Free State belong to two unclassified groups (Lendu and Morafu) — tongues very distantly allied to ]\Iai"ibettu and ^ladi — and to two distinct divisions of the Bantu language family, the Kibira section and the Lihuku (divided into two very distinct dialects, 301. PYGMY WKAPO-NS, AXD TWO TKUMPETS MADE FKOM ELEPHANT's TUSKS Kuamba and Libvanuma, or Lihuku). The names of the tribes of forest Negroes coming under this purview are the Lendu and Bambuba (or Mbuba) ; the Babira (Bagbira, Bavira), with their different cognomens of Basongora, Baduinbo, Bandesama, Bandusuma, Babusese, Basinda, etc. ; and the Baamba, with the allied Bahuku (Babvanuma). The Lendu form a distinct group somewhat by themselves, and so do the Bambuba.* The last-named are closely connected in origin with the Momfu tribe which dwell about the northern sources of the Welle. Linguistically speaking, 1 have not as yet been able to trace marked * Or perhaps more properly the " Mbuba.'' " Ba- " is the ]ikiral prefix of their Bantu neighbours. PYGMIES AND FOEEST NEGROES 547 affinities between the Lendu and the ]\Ibalm languages and anv other well-known group of African tongues. On the whole, perhaps, thev are more connected with the Madi group than any other. Physically speaking, both tribes offer some diversity of type. Amongst the Lendu one occasionally sees individuals with almost Hamitic physiognomy, due, no doubt, to mixture with the Banyoro on the opposite side of the Albert Nyanza. Others, again, among tlie Lendu offer a physical type reseml)ling the Pygmies and the Banande. There is considerable correspondence in body measurements between the Lendu people and the Pygmy-Prognathous group. On the whole, however, the faces met with amongst the Lendu f>^' KMANCE SKATED are more pleasing than among the other forest tribes. The Lendu inhabit the country which lies to the west of the southern half of Lake Albert. This country is mainly grassy upland, but part of it where the land slopes towards the Congo basin is covered with dense forest, and in many of their affinities, physical and ethnological, the Lendu are more closely allied to the forest tribes than to the people of the Nile Valley. Their neighbours in this direction are the Alulu, or Aluru, who will be treated of in that section of the book dealing with the Nilotic Negroes. To the south the Lendu go by the name of " Lega," or " Balega." Why this name should be given to or assumed by them in the Upper Semliki Valley I have not been able to ascertain. It is the name belonging to a tribe of Bantu-speaking 5-iS PYGMIES AND TOREST NEGROES € 1 1 i 4 m iL--* 'Jf .303. A LKMJU, 01; LEi.A, li;oM > ALBEUT iL'iii-w i.-r (ji:m;i; m' lake people who dwell to the north-west of the north end of Tanganyika, in t hat part of the Congo Forest whicli lies to the west of the Ruanda country. Possibly the real Balega once halted in one of their migra- tions at the south end of Lake Albert, and a remnant of them which was conquered by the invading Lendu has per- petuated its name though it has lost the use of a Bantu language. The Lendu as a race have come into rather pro- minent notice lately, because they became to a great extent enslaved by the soldiers of Emin Pasha's Equatorial Pro- \' i n c e when these Sudanese were driven by the Madhist invasion of the equatorial Nile re- gions to take refuge in the wild countries to the west of Lake Albert ; and when the Sudanese were transferred to Uganda by Captain Lugard they brought who now form thriving colonies with them hundreds of Lendu follower nt Mengo and Entebbe. Like almost all races in this part of Africa, the migration of the Lendu lias been more or less from north to south. Emin Pasha used to express the opinion that the Lendu had come from the north-east, and were the original inhabitants of Lnyoro, having been ejected from that countrv and drisen beyond the Albert Xyanza by the subsequent ♦f^\N ; kviS 304. A LEXDU FROM WE.-iT OF LAKE ALBERT (SHOWING INTERMIXTURE WITIL lU.MA INVADERS Or' PAST times) 550 PYGMIES AND TOREST NEGROES invasions of Nilotic Negroes, Baliima (Gala), and Bantu, But the general tradition among the Lendu tliemselves is that they came from the countries to the west of the AN'liito Nile, and were forced by other tribes pressing on them from the north to establish themselves on the jilateau countries to the west of Lake Albert. Here they found the Dwarfs (as already related) existing in numbers. They drove the Dwarfs out of the grass country of the high plateau, and then, again, being attacked bv the Aluru and the Banyoro, the Lendu were forced to enter the forest, which to a great extent they inhabit at the present day, living in fairly amicable relations with the Pygmies, the !Mbuba, and the Bantu-speaking forest folk. I have already stated that examph^s of the so-called Lendu are of a distiuctlv superior physical type, with almost Hamitic features, and I attribute this to mingling with or receiving settlers from Lnyoro and the Nile countries. But as regards the bulk of the Lendu population, both Dr. Stuhlmann and Dr. Shrubsall (who has contributed a most valuable analysis of mv anthropometrical observations) considered that they showed distinct signs of affinity to the PN'gmy-Proguathous type. No doubt the explanation is that some ordinary race of Sudanese Negroes came down from the north and mingled so much with the Pygmies, whom they superseded, as to absorb many of their physical characteristics. Dr. Shrubsall classes the Lendu with the Pygmy group as regards some of the measurements of the head and body. The -physical characteristics of this type of Lendu are shared by many of the Baamba, Bahuku, and Babira people of the forest borderland, though all these three tribes speak Bantu languages. They mav be described liriefly as a great want of proportion between the mass of the bodv, and the short, feeble legs which support it. Were not my ])hotographs there to attest the jjroof, it would be thought, if they were drawings, that the artist had in serious error attributed limbs to the torso which were three times too small. The arms are long, the face is net generally so simian in appearauce as among the Pygmy-Prognathous group, yet the nose, bv its broad tip and large raised wings, often shows affinity with the forest Dwarfs. The colour of the skin is usually a dirty chocolate- brown. The hair is allowed to grow as long as possible, and its length is added to bv the addition of string, so that the face is often surrounded by a mop of little plaits, which are loaded with greese, clay, or red camwood. There is a scrubbv beard on the face of every man of twenty-five years and upwards. Most of the Lendu young men, like all the forest folk round them, bore the upper lip with from two to eight holes. Into these holes are thrust rounded pencils of quartz or sections of the stems of reeds, or small brass rings may pass completely through the upper lip. The Pygmies also have their lips bored in this fashion, and sometimes stick small flowers into the holes. PYGMIES AND POREST NEGllOES 551 The men [)raetise circumcision, but they are not given to knocking out any of their front teeth, which is such a widespread custom in varying degrees amongst the Nile Negroes and some of the adjoining Kantu tribes. As regards clothing, the women often go perfectly naked, and at most, even on the confines of civilisation, wear a small bunch of leaves tucked into a girdle. The men do not generally affect complete nudity, and are seldom seen without at any rate a small piece of bark-cloth, which is passed through their string girdle in front and brought back between the legs to the string girdle at the back. Mantles of monkey skin are often added, especially on the lofty regions, w'here the climate can become at times very cold. A string to which amulets or little medicine- horns are attached is worn by every man. The huts of the Lendu seem more to resemble those of the Aluru and Nile people than the dwellings of the forest folk in that the thatch is generally of grass and disposed in overlapping rings like flounces. The doorway, however, is prolonged into a porch, a condition very characteristic of the huts in the forest. The fireplace is in the middle, there is one bedstead at the furthest end of the hut opposite the doorway, and generally another bedstead (for a wife) inside a little enclosure which is surrounded by a reed screen on the left-hand side of the interior. The Lendu do not appear to be cannibals. Their food consists of grain (maize and sorghum), beans, collocasia arums, and various kinds of spinach grown in their plantations, of bananas (when they live near the forest), and of the produce of their herds of goats, sheep, and cattle. As regards domestic animals, a few of the Lendu far away from the Albert Nyanza still possess cattle (it is said). Those dwelling in the forest keep none, and those anywhere near the Semliki Valley or the shores of Lake Albert have lost their cattle at the hands of the Banyoro. They keep goats, often of a long-haired variety, sheep, and fowls, besides pariah dogs, which they use in hunting. Slain animals are roughly cut up, and large pieces of flesh with the hair still adhering to the skin are roasted over the fire. The Lendu are fond of hunting. They are adroit in basket-making and mat-weaving. They plait baskets in such large quantities that they use them as articles of barter with other races less well supplied. They make pottery which resembles somewhat closely the types found in Uganda and in the Nile Province. Their musical instruments are also very similar to those of Uganda, and have the same origin — namely, from the countries of the Upper Nile. Dr. Stuhlmann in his notes on these people gives an interesting account of the ceremonious way in which the huts are built, the men undertaking definite portions of the work and the women the rest. Stuhlmann states that when a house is built it is the husband who must first introduce fire. VOL. II. ^ '^ \^.> «iL 305. TWO BAMULLJ.V AND .ML.NA.\liE (THi; MLXANDi: I.- ili;. il.;.ii..i„ i.L.Li.. PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 553 As regards the tmion of the sexes, it would a})pear as though among the Lendu there was a certain freedom of intercourse among the young men and young women before marriage. When a young man is satisfied that a girl with whom he has had intercourse would suit him as a wife, he makes a formal demand for her, accompanying it by a gift of hoes and goats to the girl's father. The latter almost invariably consents, and the marriage then takes i)lace amidst much drinking of beer and eating of flesh. The young couple, once the bride has been brought to the home of the husband's parents, must remain in their hut and its adjoining courtyard for a period of a month. After the married j)air have entered into their house, before the husband consummates the marriage he must first sacrifice a fowl to the ancestor spirit of the village. At a birth no men are allowed to go near the hut where the woman is about to be delivered except the husband and, perhaps, the witch doctor, and only then if there is likely to be a difficulty in the parturition. These are not allowed to help in the delivery unless there are complications, but the witch doctor makes a sacrifice of fowls and anoints the woman's forehead with the blood. The woman is usually delivered in a kneeling position, with the body bowed horizontally. After birth the child is washed with warm water and laid on large fresh green leaves by the side of the mother. Should it be silent after birth and not cry, it is taken as a bad sign. It is laid between two sheets of bark-cloth and a bell is rung over it until the child utters its first crv. During ten days the mother and child must remain quiet in the house, and during this period the woman is forbidden by custom to set her hair in order. Also during these ten days no live brands or glowing charcoal must be taken out of the house or into it. On the tenth day the woman makes some kind of a toilet and seats herself in the doorway with the child on her knee, so that its naming may take place. At this juncture the father, accompanied by the men of the village and by the grandparents, if there are any, comes up to the woman, and, if the child is a boy, places a little bow and arrows and a knife in his hand. While he is doing this, the grandfather, if the child be a boy, gives it a name. If it is a girl, it is named by the mother's mother, the name of a boy being given in like manner by the father's father. Names are generally chosen to illustrate some peculiarity or characteristic of the child or of its parents. Feasting in the form of a friendly meal on the part of acquaintances and relations takes place on the eleventh day after the child's birth. The people invited bring most of their own provisions with them already prepared, and the guests either eat in the hut where the child was born or in the adjoining houses of neighbours. The day passes with song and dance, and in the evening the father takes the child and exhibits it to the more important guests, asking them earnestly whether 554i PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES they think it resembles him and if it is really liis child. Curiously enough, the Lendu children are seldom seen running ^^^^^^^_^ naked, in contradistinc- 'ii/^ I'l^^'^*'^^' ^^HHHfllk 1, ^ion to all the surround- \x\g races, where whatever degree of clothing may be worn by adults, children almost to the age of puberty usually go naked. Circumcision amongst the Lendu takes place at the age of seven or eight years without any special feast or ceremony. The opera- tion is never carried out in the village, but in a copse or wood or in high grass. The part re- moved is carefully buried in the ground, and the boy must remain away from the village until the wound has healed. As regards 6it?"ift^ cere- monies,if the dead person is of importance or a chief, his successor — his son, or, in the absence of children, a brother — conducts the ceremonies. In the dead man's hut a large grave is dug, one end of which is prolonged into a tunnel under the floor of the hut. Into this tunnel the corpse, which has been wound up into a sitting position with many folds of bark-cloth and fresh skins, is laid on a bed of skins. The grave is then filled uj), and a feast of beer and flesh takes place. The hut in which the personage of importance is buried — sometimes the whole village in which he dwelt — is abandoned after the burial ceremonies. The common people are buried in much the same way, but without, perhaps, such elaborate swathing in bark-cloth. Those who are denounced by the witch doctors as unauthorised sorcerers in their lifetime, if dead or after 306. AN MBUBA OF THE ITVKl FOKESJ', WITH OX HORN TRUMPET PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 55o being executed for their supposed crimes, are thrown into the bush and left un buried. The Lendu have no very clearly marked relifj/on, though they have a distinct ancestor-2 34-0 30-8 Bantu, S 34-9 344 1 30-7 The cranial ca])acity, 1400 c.c, is moderate, approximately that of the Mafibettu, but more than that of the other Pvgmy races. s ? Bushmen 1330 1260 Akkas 1100 1070 Andamanese 1240 1130 PYGMIES AND FOKEST NEGROES 561 The cephalic index, or tiie relation between the length and breadth of the cranium, is 79*2, as compared with 74-4 in the male and 77'9 in the female Akka. This agrees with the index 787 derived from measurements of living liambute, and may serve to indicate affinity with the short brachycei)halic peoples of French Congo described by numerous French observers. Some skulls of this type were sent to the British Museum from the Fernand Vaz by Du Chaillu, and were described by the late Professor Owen in an api^endix to the former author's narrative. The vertical indices are as follows : — Length-Height. Beeadth-Height. Banibute .... Akka, ? . . . . Bushmen, (^ . Bushmen, $ . 70-2 76-1 70-8 71-2 887 977 96-0 91-4 The prognathism, clearly indicated by the gnathic or alveolar index of Flower is a feature in which it resembles the Akkas and is widely separated from the Bushmen ; the latter, however, are also prognathous, according to other methods of investigation. Bambute Akka, c? Akka, ? 107-4 1087 104-3 Bushmen, (^ Bushmen, ? Adamanese, J 101-5 99-2 102 -a Prognathism seems to be a marked feature of all skulls from the Congo district as contrasted with those of other Negro tribes. Upper Ubangi . Nyam-Nyam . Mahbettu . Osyekani (French Congo) 104-6 101-2 1067 105-0 Ashanti . Mandingo Kaffirs Bantu of lake district 101-4 100-0 100-4 100-5 The face is short, inclined to broadness, with malar bones less prominent than might have been expected; the naso-malar index of Oldtield Thomas is 111-6, as compared with 108 in the Akka, 106 in the Mahbettu, and 107 in the South Africa Bush race. Whether or no this is a racial character cannot be decided from one specimen, which may be abnormal in this respect, but the feature cannot well have been derived from neighbouring peoples, who present the following average indices: Nyam-Nyam, 106 ; Bantu of the Upper Congo, 106-8 ; Bantu of the lake district, 107-5. A study of the measurements of living Banibute suggests that in reality the face is more flattened than would appear from this individual. The orbits are short and broad, the index, 82-5, being practically coincident with that of the Akkas. The interorbital space is wide and Hattened, though not nearly to the extent met in the Bushmen. The nose is short and broad, the ai)erture large and pyriform, the nasal spine poorly marked, and the maxillary border characterised by simian grooves. The nasal bones are flattened from above downwards, and from side to side, so that there is but little bridge to the nose. The indices are contrasted in the following table : — 562 PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES Bambute Akka, S ■ Akka, ? . Asbanti, S 587 63-4 55 '3 57-9 Rnsbman, ^ . . . 60-2 Congo Bantu, J . . 56'6 Lake district Bantu . 55'2 Osyekani, S ■ • • 58*3 Tbis indicates that althougb the nasal index is higher in the northern than in the southern Negro, yet in the Dwarf races it reaches an extreme which constitutes a very definite racial character, brought out equally clearly by the measurements of the living. The palate is long and narrow, the teeth large, both actually and relatively, to the size of the skull. The mandible is slight and characterised by shortness of the condylar and coronoid processes, shallowness of the sigmoid notch, and the pointed nature of the chin ; in all of which features the Bambute resemble the Akkas and Bushmen, but dilfer from the Manbettu and all surrounding Negro tribes. ^Ieasueements of the Mandible in Millimetres. Bigonial arc 198 Minimum height of ascending ramus 42 Minimum breadth of ascending ramus 40 112 80 32 23 Bicondylar breadth . Maximum bigonial breadth Syrnphysial height Molar height .... CoUognon's index, 71 '9 ; gonio-zygomatic index, 64'0. PELVIS. Measurements in Millimetres. Maximum breadth between the outer lijjs of the iliac crests .... Breadth between the anterior superior iliac spines Breadth between the anterior inferior iliac spines Breadth between the posterior superior iliac spines Breadth of ilium anterior superior to posterior superior spine Breadth of innominate bones, posterior sujjerior spine to top of symphysis . Height of innominatum from summit of crest to lowest part of the tuber ischii Vertical diameter of obturator foramen Transverse diameter of obturator foramen Antero-posterior diameter of brim of pelvis Transverse diameter of brim of pelvis Length of sacrum Breadth of sacrum Indices. Breadth-height index (Turner) Breadth-height index (Topinard) Obturator index Innominate index ..... Pelvic or brim index Sacral index The pelvis is slight, the bones but ])oorly marked with muscular impressions, and the iliac crests less sinuous than in the higher races. The resemblance to the pelvis of Akkas and Bushmen is close, but detailed comjiarison with the former is impossible owing to the difference in sex between the individual specimens available. The i)elvic or brim index, 95"8, places the Bambute in the round, or dolichopelvic. 191 181 143 70 117 171 45 27-5 92 96 101 91 89-5 1117 (in 95-8 90-1 PYGMIES AND POREST NEGROES 563 group, in company with the Bushmen and Andamanese among Dwarf races, and with the Kaffirs and Australian Negroes among the taller races. The average ijelvic index in European male skeletons is 80. The breadth-height indices (89T) and 1117) show the great actual and relative height of the pelvis in the Bambute, though in this respect they do not exceed the Bushman measured by 8ir William Turner. In the height of the pelvis the Dwarf races approach the simian type, as is evident from the following table of indices taken from Tojiinard's " Elements d'Antliropologic," ]>. 1049 : — 46 Europeans 126"6 11 Melanesiaus 1227 17 African Negroes 121 "3 20 Anthropoid apes 10")'6 The sacrum presents the not uncommon anatomical jjeculiarity of imperfect synostosis of the first with the remaining sacral vertebrte. Beside this there is an additional element united into the sacrum so that it is comjjosed of six vertebrae instead of five. The index shows that it falls into the dolichohieric group in company with the other Dwarf races. Vertebral column.— The heights of the lumbar vertebra? are as follows : — Bambi'te. Akka, ( No. Anterior Surface. Posterior Surface. Anterior Surface. I. 20 22 22 II 20 22 22 III. 20 21 23 IV. 21 21-5 23 V. 21 17-5 24 Total . 102 104-0 114 Posterior Surface. 23 24 25 24 21 117 Index 102 102 6 The Bambute, like the Akkas, Bushmen, and many African Negroes, fall into the koilorachic group of Turner, in which the concavity of the lumbar curve is directed forwards instead of backwards, as in the European. Bones of the Limbs.— The clavicles are slender, short, and jioorly marked, with the /curve less obvious than usual. The right clavicle is 117, and the left 119, millimetres long, the claviculo-humeral indices being 41-9 and 43-8 respectively. The bones of the arms and forearms are similarly small. The femora are slight, very curved antero-posteriorly and markedly pilastered. The angle between the neck and shaft is 42°. The lengths of the individual bones are indicated in the table :— Right. Left. Humerus . 280 272 Femur Radius 222 218 Tibia . Ulna .... 230 232 Fibula Right. ' Left. 387 386 309 309 297 298 56J. PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES The following indices have been calculated, and are contrasted with those of other races : — liadio-humeral Humero-femoral . Tibio-femoral Inter-menibral (hume- rus and radius : femur and tibia) The dimensions of the scapula? are 1 Bam BUTE. Akka (Flower). Negko (Humphry). Bushman (Topinard). European (Flower). Right. Left. $ ? 79-3 807 76-2 82-9 79-4 737 73-4 72-4 70-.-) 72-0 71-9 69 — ■ 72-9 79-8 807 83-0 817 847 85-8 827 727 71-9 677 72-9 ~" — 69-5 Total length Right. Left. Ill Ill iSubspinous length .... 91 91 Breadth 97 96 Scajmlar itidex .... 87-4 86-5 Infraspinous index .... 106-6 103-.-) Professor Flower, in the table shown below, draws attention to the remarkable •characters of the Akka scapula? ; those of the Bambute are still more remarkable : — 200 Europeans. 21 [ e Andamanese. Negroes. 1 Akka. 1 Bambute. 65-2 89-4 69-8 717 927 100-9 80-3 112-2 87 106 Scapular index Infraspinous index However, as has been pointed out by Turner in the ChaUencjer reports, this index shows great individual variation, and much stress must not be laid on any save large series of observations. Proportions According to Height. (Stature = 100.) Humerus Jiadius . Femur . Tibia . Akka, ? (Flower). 3 Bushmen (Humphiy *). 25 Negroes (Humphry *). 25 Europeans (Humphry*). 4 Chimpanzees (Humphry *). Bambute, o • 19-8 20-0 19-5 19-5 24-4 157 15-4 15-2 14-1 22-0 Not yet 27-5 27-8 27-4 27-5 24-8 taken. 22-3 23-9 23-2 22-1 20-0 Humphry, " A Treatise on the Human Skeleton." PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES oGo From the foregoing we may conclude that the Bambute are intermediate in ■character between the Akka and the taller races, but are more neaily allied to the former ; that although these Dwarf races in some respects are more simian in type than other Africans, yet they are essentially and entirely human, and approach more nearly to the Negro than to any other race. Measurements of Craxia ix Millimetres. BACE Bambute B.M. 1. 8. 9. 1 Akka. Maxbettu. Museum and Catalogue \ Number . . J B.M. B.M. R.C.S. 12.57 b. R.C'.S. 1257c. Sex .... S 6 ? 6 s Maximum glabello-occiintal 1 length . . . . ' 178 168 163 178 176 ^Maximum breadth 141 125 127 136 137 Basi-bregmatic height . 12o — 124 124 134 Bi- zygomatic breadth . 125 118 109 129-5 135 Naso-alveolar height . 67 — — 65 75 Orbital breadth . 40 35 35 37 38 Orbital height 33 29 29 35 34 Bi-dacryc breadth 22 21 20 26 28 Nasal height 46 41 38 47 50 Nasal breadth 27 26 21 24 28 Internal bi-orbital breadth . 9.5 91 90 98 101 Basi-nasal length . 94 92 92 95 99 Basi-alveolar length . 101 100 96 103 105 Dental length 42 45 — 45 43 Naso-malar curve 1C6 — — 103 108 Frontal curve 12.-) 118 108 128 115 Parietal curve 11.) 110 120 112 130 Occipital curve 110 113 107 107 113 Total sagittal curve 350 341 333 347 358 Total horizontal curve . 505 468 462 495 500 Cranial capacity in c.c. 1400 1100 1070 1320 1390 Indices. Length-breadth Length-height Breadth-height LTpper facial (Kollmann) Orbital .... Nasal .... Alveolar. Dental .... Naso-malar . 79-2 70-2 887 536 82-5 587 107-4 447 111-6 74-4 82-9 63-4 1087 48-9 107-9 77-9 761 977 82-9 55-3 104 3 108-0 76-4 697 91-2 50-2 94-6 511 108-4 47-4 105-1 77-8 761 97-8 55-5 89-5 56 106-1 43-4 106 -9 CHAPTER XY BANTU NEGROES (1) The Bakoxjo, Eanyoko, Bahima, etc. THE Western Province of the Uganda Protectorate, which includes the Districts of Uuyoro, Toro, and Ankole, is inhabited in the main by Bantu Negroes who are overlaid with an aristocracy of Hamitic descent in varying degrees — that is to say, by a race akin to the modern Gala and Somali. I write " in the main " because in the upper part of the Semliki Volley, and perhaps round about the eastern shore of Lake Albert Edward, there are a few Pygmy or prognathous people differing somewhat in type from the average Bantu, and speaking languages not related to that stock. It is perhaps advisable at this stage to again repeat that by " Bantu " Xegro the present writer means that average Negro type which inhabits the whole southern third of Africa (excepting the Hottentots and Bushmen). He would have hesitated to give a racial distinction to the term "Bantu" (the fitness of which as a linguistic definition is beyond question) were it not that the careful researches of Dr. Shrubsall into the body and skull measurements of Africans tend towards the recognition of a distinct Negro type or blend which differs slightly from the Negro of the Nile or of West Africa. But in the I ganda Protectorate the physical Bantu type is not confined solely to those tribes which speak Bantu languages. It reappears among the Karamojo and among the southern tribes of Nilotic Negroes, and again to the west of the U])ppr Nile and along the Nile-Congo water-parting. The Bantu Negroes of Unyoro, Toro, and Ankole may be divided approxi- mately into two stocks : the Bakonjo, who inhabit the southern flanks of Ruwenzori and the grass country on both sides of the Upper Semliki and to the west of Lake Albert Edward ; and the mass of the Negro population in Uuyoro, Toro, and Ankole. This original Bantu Negro stock shows no distinct traces of recent intermixture with the Hamite, with the Bahima aristocracy. Of such a type are the Bairo, who constitute the bulk of the population in Ankole, the Batoro (who may be sub-divided again into the Batagwenda and Banyamwenge), and the Banyoro (who again are sub- BANTU NEGROES 507 divided into the Banyambnga on tlie north-west coast of Lake Albert, tlie Bagangaizi to the soutli-cast of Lake Alb?rt, the Banyoro proper, the 311. A T'lKD m;,.1;'> from the EAST SIDE OF KUWEXZORI Basindi in the east of I'nyoro, the Japahia * on the north, and the Bagungu on the north-west). It is said that tlie Bagungu of north-west * This word was corrupted by Emin Pasha's Sudanese into " Shifahi.' The Japabia are Nilotic in their language. VOL. II. 7 568 BANTU XEGROES Uu^-oro, near Lake Albert, speak a Bantu language differing widely from the Nyoro tongue : probably it is a dialect of Lihuku.* The Banyoro seem to have extended their conquests and settlements right across the Upper Semliki into the Mboga, Bulega, and Busongora countries on the edge of the Congo watershed, and also all along the western coast-line of the Albert Xyanza as far north as ^lahagi. On the east of Unyoro the Mctoria Nile is practi- cally the boundary between the Bantu- speaking people and the Nilotic Negroes. But tliis does not prevent occasional migrations one way and the other, and there are people speak- ing Nilotic dialects to the south and west of the Victoria Nile, while a few folk who still retain the use of the Urunyoro Bantu language are met with near the INIurchison Falls to the north of the Nile. In physical char- acteristics there is not, perhaps, very much difference between the tirst group of Bantu Negroes under considera- tion, the Bakonjo, and the second group, which comprises the mass of the population in Unyoro, Toro, and Ankole. The Bakonjo, perhaps, where they live on high mountains such as Kuwenzori, are shorter in stature and of stouter build, with better developed calves than the population of the plains. Some of the Bakonjo have rather pleasing features, and do not exhibit as a rule those degraded types met * Lihnku (Lihvaiiuiua) p.nd Kuainba are two allied and very ancient Bantu tongues s])()ken in the forest lielt of the I'pper Semliki. They are thoroughly " Bantu," l)Ut difj'er considerably from the other Bantu dialects of Uganda. 312. A TOKO XEGRO FROM THE EAST SIDE OF EUWENZORI BAXTU NEGROES 569 with to the west of Ruwenzori or on the eastern sliores of Lake Albert Edward. Among the Banyoro may be seen people of handsome eounten- 313. A MUKOXJO (SHOWING KAISKD WEALS— fR'ATKISATHtN ) ances who still retain the Negro physical characteristics in the main. This, no doubt, is due to the ancient infiltration of Hamitic blood as apart from the recent hybrids between the Bahima aristocracy and their 570 BANTU NEGKOES Negro serfs. The Baivo, who form the agricultural and, until recently, the serf population of Ankole, resemble the Baganda in appearance, and 314. A MUKOXJO WOMAN WITH GRASS AKMLtTS are usually a peojile of tall stature, with rather projecting brow ridges. full or slightly prominent eyes, and in the men a considerable growth of whiskers, beard, and moustache. Almost all these Bantu Negroes of BANTU NEGllOES 571 the Western Province are ^v^'ll-prollortione(l people, not (except on the fringe of the Seniliki Forest or on tlie shores of Lake Albert Kdward) exhibiting any want of ])roportion (according to onr ideal?) between the body and the liinlis. Amongst the true Ban- yoro the mouth is some- times ugly liecause of the protrusion of the teeth in the upper jaw, caused by the removal of the lower incisors. For the rest, the physical characteristics of these people can be sufficiently ascertained by reference to the ])hotographs of the principal types illus- trating this chapter, and by a glance at the anthro- pometric observations at the end of Chapter XIII. Some of the Eakonjo ornament the torso and stomach (generally on one or both sides) with a cicatrisation arranged in patterns. An ex- ample of this is given on p. 569. The southern Eakonjo extend these ornamental scars or weals to the forearm. The true Eakonjo neither file their upper incisors to sharp points nor do they ordi- narily remove any of the incisors. Circumcision is not practised by them. The adornments of the body in the women offer one special feature (some- times also seen in the men). Rirnjs of very finely plaited grass or fibre * * These rings of finely plaited grass or fibre are also worn by the Baaniba, both men and women, but generally only on the left arm. 315. TWO BAKONJO i.)/: BANTU NEGROES are worn on the npper part of the arm between the elbow and the shoulder. As will be seen in the accoini)anying iHustrations, these rings, which are 316. A IILKONJO WOMAN rather tight to the arm near the elbow, widen as their coils extend upwards. Very often on tiie left arm a small knife is worn thrust into these rings. >«ecklaces are made of beads, fine iron chains, large seeds strung together, BANTU NEGROES 573 or of innumerable circlets of shells from a kind of fresli-water mussel. These thin segments are drilled with a hole in the middle and jiacked 317. A MIKONJO 5IAN FKOM THE SOUTH OK KIWKXZOHI closely together on the string. I have never observed amongst the Kakonjo any piercing of the ear lobe or wearing of ear-rings. In such points as these they follow the same customs as the Bahima. Kings of o/ BANTU XECJ^ROES iron wire are wound on to t'ne forearms of the women, and sometimes also on tlie upi;er [;art of tlie arm underneath the grass rings. Bracelets of iron are also worn by l^otli men and women. Sometimes the women's bracelets are of peculiar shape, something like a horseshoe brought to a point. Iron rings are placed on any or all of the fingers and sometimes on the thumb. A wire girdle is worn round tlie waist, and into this is thrust a small flap (or in the case of the women a very short petticoat) of bark-cloth. The men will sometimes wear a piece of cloth or skin passed between the legs and brought up at the back and in front through the wire belt, thus forming a seat behind and a small covering in front. The men among the mountain JJakonjo often wear nothing in front which answers any purpose of decency, and confine their clothing mostly to cloaks of rnonkey, baboon, or hyrax skin thrown over the shoulders or over one shoulder. The mountain Eakonjo set great store by the hyrax, and in pursuit of this little animal they climb u[) Kuweuzori as far as the snow level. Both species of hyrax on Euwenzori have thick woolly fur, and the little skins are sewn together to form cloaks and mantles for the otherwise naked people. A large baboon will occasionally furnish a fine fur cape, and a man thus accoutred has a wild aspect, with his shoulders bristling with this long coarse mane. The houses of the Bakonjo are neatly made, and offer in design more resemblance to those of the forest agricultural Xegroes in that thev have a porch in front of the door. The structure of the house and roof is one building ; it does not consist of circular walls on which is poised the separate funnel-shaped roof. Numerous pliant but strong, smooth branches or saplings are placed in the ground round the circular site of the hut. They are upright to the height of four feet above the ground, and then are slightly bent over towards the apex of the roof. Horizontal bands of withes and many additional upright sticks convert this skeleton of the 31b. A .MLKO.N.IO ISilDWlNG BABOOX SKIN MAXTLE) BAXTU NEGROES 575 Louse into a firm basket work, sui)ported perhaps bv one strong pole in the middle of the hut. Banana leaves make a singularly neat covering, and are kept in their places by long, lithe 1 ands of bamboo. Grass thatch may in some cases be added over the roof. Tin's stvle of house is well illustrated in the accompanying photograph, which was taken by the late Major Sitwell.* The food of the Bakonjo varies according to whether they live in the plains or on the mountains. In the plains between Kuwenzori and the +> —•/i-.'-vj -H 319. A KOXJO HOUSE, SOUTH-WEST SLOPES OF RUWEXZORI mountains to the west of Lake xVlbert Edward the Bakonjo cultivate mo.st of the Negro food crops, such as bananas, peas and beans, sorghum, sweet potatoes, maize, pumpkins, and collocasia arums. On the mountains their food consists mainly of bananas, sweet potatoes, and collocasia ; but the mountain people are very fond of meat, and to obtain animal food they range far and wide through the forests, tropical and temperate, up to the snow-line in pursuit of liyraxes, monkeys, lats, and small antelopes. Their favourite article of diet undoubtedly is the //(/rax, and in pursuit of this * Major Sitwell did a great deal to establish British control over the Toro District. He was killed in one of the earlier battles of the Sonth African war. 576 BANTU NEGROES IX A KIIX.IO VILLAGE, WESTERN" SLOPES OF RUWENZOlil animal they will fece the rigours of a snowstorm. In tlieir eves it is the principal inducement to ascend the mountains as far as the '' white stuff," which to these naked people is ahiiost synonymous with death. The only other motive which impi-lled them in times past to f|uit the belt of forest and shiver in the caverns near the snow-line was the pursuit of Kabarega's raiding soldiery. The Bakonjo for centuries have been raided and robbed by the Banyoro people of Un\oro, Toro, and Ankole. At one time, according to their traditions, they kept large herds of cattle; but all their cattle were taken from them by the Baganda and Banyoro in their incessant raids on the mountain })eo})le. The Bakonjo of the mountains have always been very friendly to Europeans. I asked one of their chiefs once why this excessive friendliness was manifested towards us, of whom they knew so little, other than that we came to their country to ascend their snow-mountains and to worry them for suj^piies of food for our porters. The chief replied, " From the moment we saw the first white man we felt sure that this was the [:ower which would defend us against the constant attacks of Kabarega's soldiers. We were right, for since you have ruled in the land our lives and property have been perfectly BANTU NEGROES 577 safe. Why, So-and-So (ineutioning a Bakonjo liead-manj i.s now able to keep cows ! " Cattle, in fact, are gradually reappearing amongst the domestic animals of the Bakonjo. Sometimes they are of the zebu (humped) breed, obtained from the direction of Lake Albert or of Uganda ; here and there, however, the long-horned cattle of Ankole have been obtained by commercial transactions. They keep goats, sheep, and fowls, and the usual kind of pariah doets, being very seldom eaten by the people. The cattle, sheep, and goats are those of Uganda — that is to say, the goats and sheep are of the ordinary Central African type, and the cattle belong to the humped, short-horned breed, here and there, however, showing traces of having mingled in times past with the long-horned Gala ox origin- ally brought in by the Bahima. The staple food at the present dav is the sweet potato and the eh'usine grain. The sesamum oil-seed and red sorghum corn are also grown, besides a little maize. The people make a great deal of beer from eleusine grain, and its consumption not infrequently leads to drinking bouts and quarrels. The marriage customs, so far as any now exist, are similar to those in force in Uganda, where' tlie people have not changed owing to the acceptance of Christianity. As regards special customs connected with the hirth of children, the present writer is informed by the Kev. A. B. Fisher that when a woman gives birth to a child she is placed on the floor of the hut before the fire, 330. A MUNYORO MAN (OF KABAREGA's FAMILY BANTU NEGROES 587 and remains inside her hut and in proximity to the fire for three days after the child's birth if it is a female, and four days if she has given birth to a boy. \Mien this period of rest has expired, her head is shaved and her finger- and toe-nails are cut. The child's head also is shaved. The mother then seats herself in the courtyard of her hut with the child on her lap. The husband and father brings friends to visit her and inspect the child, much in tlie way already described in connection with the forest Negroes. Then the husband makes his wife a present of bark-cloth, and with the aid of his friends cleans out her hut and strews fresh grass round the fireplace. When night comes the child is solemnly presented to the ancestral spirits, or " Bachwezi." The sorcerer or priest, to whom is delegated the cult of the particular " muchwezi," or spirit of the clan, to which the family belongs, appears on the scene, prays aloud and intones songs or hymns to the ancestral spirits, asking that the child mav have long life, riches, no illness, and, above all. that it may be a faithful believer in the tribal and ancestral spirits. He accompanies each special request by spitting on the child's body and pinching it all over. The priest or medicine man is then presented with 108 kauri shells, which are said to be calculated on this allowance : nine for each of the child's arms, and ninety for the whole of the child's body. The Banyoro hury their dead in much the same way as that already related in connection with the forest tribes. No such thing as cannibalism is ever heard of amongst them, unless it be occasional allegations of corpse-eating on the part of wizards. The Banyoro are di\ided into many clans, which would aj)pear to have totems as sacred symbols or ancestral emblems like the similar clans in Uganda. This institution, however, like so many other customs connected with the Banyoro, has lately been much defaced and obscured by the 331. a minyouo 588 -BANTU XEGUOES appjilling depo[)ulation of the country consequent on civil wars and foreign invasions. The animals or plants chosen as totems are much the same as in Uganda, varying, however, with the existence or non-existence of the svmbols in the Hora and fauna of Unyoro. There is probably a greater preponderance of antelopes as totems compared with what occurs in Uganda. It is unlawful by custom for a Munyoro to kill or eat the totem of his clan. Thus, if the hartebeest should be the totem of a clan or family, members of this clan must not kill or eat the hartebeest. I have never been able to ascertain either from Eanyoro or Kagaiida that their forefathers at any time believed the clan to be actually descended from the object chosen as a totem. The matter remains very obscure. It may be remotely connected witli ancestor-worship, which is certainly the foundation of such religious beliefs as are held by the Eanyoro, as by most other Negro races. Each tribe or clan has its own '• muchwezi." This word is translated by the missionaries as "High Priest." •• ^Nluchwezi/' liowever, really seems to 332- A KAM AMI IA\ K I^AKi.l'. KAI-IAILKII INYOKO BREED OF SHEEP mean two things, or the same thing with two meanings. It indicated originally both the ghost of an ancestor or chief and the individuals of the suj^erior. light-coloured (iaia race of almost Caucasian stock, which EANTU NEGROES 589 entered tliese lands at different periods in remote and relatively recent times, and which in the modified and more negroid form of the l^ahima constitutes the aristocracy to-dav of all the lands between the Victoria 333. A FAT-TAILKl) ^iHKKl' F1U>.M l.WOKO Nile on the north and Tanganyika on the south. The " mut-hwezi," or priest, who conducts this worship of ancestral spirits (each tribe or clan has its own ancestral spirit, who is sometimes confused with the totem) is equivalent to the sorcerer, medicine man, or witch doctor so common everywhere in Kegro Africa. But besides the accredited priest of the clan, many individuals may set up to be doctors in white or black magic. More will be said about the religious beliefs of the Banyoro when the Bahima aristocracy are dealt with in the latter part of this chapter, since the Bahima seem to have largely developed the religious beliefs and practices of the aboriginal Negroes. The ferocious thunderstorms which occur in Unyoro, as in most other parts of the Uganda Protectorate, are not unnaturally associated somewhat specially with the manifestation of spiritual power. Cases of people being struck by lightning are far from uncommon, and whenever such an event occurs it is a signal among the Banyoro for a great ceremony connected with the worship of the "Bachwe/i." The individual killed by lightning is not moved from where he fell dead, but nine witches or old women are sent for.* These old women surround the body on all sides, each of them holding a spear which is pointed downwards towards the earth. The * The reader may note with interest how in Unyoro and Ankole in the religious practices of the people the number 9 constantly occurs as a sacred number. 590 BANTU NEGROES women take u[) a croucliing jjosition, squatting on the ground with their backs to the body. Then the special •' muchwezi," or priest of the tribe to wliich the dead man belonged, is summoned. When he arrives, he brings with him a small gourd basin full of water. The crowd which has by this time assembled draws near, and the priest sprinkles most of the people with water as a sign of purification. Then he announces in a loud voice that the " Bachwezi " are angry because some wrong-doing has occurred either on the part of the dead man or on the part of members of his clan. P"or this wrong-doing the ancestral spirits have demanded a victim. The dead bodv is then wrapped up in the bark-cloth or skins and carried out into the long grass. Amidst the grass an ant-hill is sought for, and when one of the right shape is found the corpse is placed on the top of it and left there un buried. When this is done, the old women-witches together with the priest assemble to investigate the cause of the spirits' anger. If they can arrive at no clear decision as to the cause (and if they do, measures are to be taken to remedy the wrong-doing), the priest of the clan demands as a sacrifice a cow without blemish, and a sheep, a goat, and a fowl, which are one-coloured, without a spot. These animals are then placed in the centre of a circle formed by the witches, after which the hags dance round the sacrifice, chanting a chorus to the effect of " 0 ' Bachwezi,' accept these our offerings and let your wrath cease." It is scarcely necessary to add that the ceremonies conclude by the priest and the witches making a hearty meal oS' the sacrificial offering. The Banyoro are not a 'particularly moral race, and under the former rule of their kings they w^ere essentially immoral. Infidelity on the part of wives was readily condoned by the present of a goat or a jar of beer, or a few kauri shells. But transgressions of this kind with women belong- ing to the big chiefs (the " bakama ") or the king himself were punished with death. Nevertheless, the king usually supported in connection with his own establishment a large number — perhaps 2,000 — professional prostitutes, whose existence as an organised corps was recorded by all travellers in Unyoro from the days of Sir Samuel Baker until the complete upsetting of the native Government of Unyoro in 1895. These women were accustomed to go into the market places of big centres of population and openly shout their trade and ply for custom. In addition to these women, whose ostensible status was that of " servants of the king," Kabarega and his predecessors would own from 1,000 to 3,000 wives and concubines. Kabarega claimed to have been the father of 700 children. On the other hand, the Banyoro have generally been regarded as an honest race — the exactions and raids of their chiefs and kings excepted. Mr. George Wilson declares that theft is peculiarly rare amongst the Banyoro, and they are honest to a degree which is exceptional in the BANTU NEGROES 591 Uganda Protectorate, where, as a rule, the pecjple are a verv h. establishment of the Jiritish Protectorate over the last-named eountrv. in addition to the loss of life there was a further drain on the population of Unyoro by the large emigration which took place into the Acholi country and across to Belgian territory on the west side of the Albert ^^yanza. As if the misdoings of their fellow Negroes were not sufficient for their misery and destruction, that Providence which so strangely afflicts the African world visited this wretched country with ap[)alling epidemics (»f disease, with droughts which caused famines and floods which caused fevers, new diseases starting or old ones reviving after the famine and the flood. The bubonic })lague which is always simmering in these couutiies near the A'ictoria Nyanza has N-isited Unyoro repeatedly, having largt^lv brought about the depopulation of the l^uruli sub-division. In liugoma and Bugaya dropsy has attacked large numbers of nativ(\s, who have also been scourged with dysentery — dysentery of such a virulent type that the natives put it down to witchcraft. Smallpox has swept the countiy once or twice within recent years, clearing off several thousand of victims. Unyoro is said to have a form of leprosy peculiar to itself (" bibembi "), which is so contagious that it may be caught merely by breathing the air surrounding the leprous person or by passing through dewy grass where the leper has i)receded. Syphilis, introduced in all probability from the Nile regions in the north (but a long while ago), is rife throughout Unyoro. In the Bugoma forest the natives state that they suffer from a malady which kills the skin and ultimately withers the nerves and muscles. It is probable that all these diseases are simply the result of fiimine and of such a disorganised state of society as b.as obliged wretched luiman beings to live in the greatest discomfort, often herded together in small and filthy caverns. It may be stated briefly that since the capture of Kabarega in 1899 and the establishment of a settled Administration the po])ulation of Unyoro has been rapidly advancing towards health and prosyjerity. The original inhabitants of the Unyoro country* (putting aside the possibility of the land having once been occupied by a Pygmy-Prognathous * It is ])eiliaps advisable to mention that no native of this land calls it anytliing but " Bunj oro." Tiie term " Unyoro" is due to the fact that Speke, (xrant, and Stanley, and all the earlier explorers only spoke the Swahili language, and carried on all their uitercourse with the natives by means of Swahili inter] ireters. In the Swahili language the " Bu-"' prefix as also the " I.u-" prefix have both degenerated to " U-." Thus a Swahili of Zanzibar syieaks of Uganda instead of liuganda, Unyoro instead of Bunyoro, I'ddu instead of Buddu, and so on. British Governments are nearly always on the side of illogical and incorrect spelling, and therefore it is hardly necessary to say that Uganda and Unyoro have been perpetuated by the British Goveriuuent for all time. 594 BANTU NEGEOES nice) are known as the IjAsita, and from all accounts were verv similar to the avei-age J^anyoro, l>atoro, and Jiairo (and no doubt to the Baganda), who form the main stock of the po])ulation of the districts of Unyoro, Toro. and Ankole. To this day the l^airo race of Ankole sometimes styles itself Basita. There is a tradition among the old men of Unyoro that at a very ancient jjeriod the whole of their country, including the forests, was destroyed by tire after a long period of drought. This caused a total exodus of the Kasita aborigines for the time lieing. But they were ruled over at that time by a queen called Nyamwengi, whose original country seems to have been the sub-division of ]\Iwengi, now included within the limits of the Toro District. But at that time this family ruled over much of modern Unyoro, over the northei'u part of Uganda, Toro, and even a part of Northern Ankole. After this devastating fire Nyamwengi revisited Unyoro and re-established the Basita in that country. Nyamwengi was succeeded by her son Saza, who died without issue. But Saza had a cook, and in all these countries at all times the king's cook was a noble or prince of high rank, a " mayor of the palace." 8aza's cook, therefore, (he was named Mukondo) seized the throne of Unyoro and founded the house of Baranze, being succeeded by Hangi, Ira, and Bukuku. Bukuku was killed liy Ndaula, a half-legendary person of Hima blood, or, as he is locally styled, " Muchwezi," " Bachwezi " lieing, as already stated, a synonymous term for the Hima or Gala invaders of the country and their descendants, and a mysterious race of supernatural beings who are often now confounded with ancestral spirits. The following is the legend current in Unyoro (according to Mr. George Wilson) regarding the advent of Ndaula : — The last king of the liouse of Baranze, Bukuku, who, of course, was a Musita — an ordinary Negro — had a daughter called Nyinaniiru. The sorcerers of the country told the king Bukuku that if this daughter bore a child that child would be the cause of the country's destruction. Thereupon the " mukama," or king, caused his daughter to be isolated in the forests near the north end of Lake Dweru, and here she was attended by a woman servant. One day when this servant was in the forest she was suddenly confronted by a man Avho informed her that his name was Isimbwa and that he was a hunter from Bugoma.* Isimbwa questioned the woman as to what she was doing in the forest, and she told him that she was entrusted with the task of attending the daughter of Bukuku, the king. Isimbwa followed the woman back to Avhere the king's daughter Avas hidden. In a bhort time he had seduced Nyinamiru, who in due time bore him a son that was named Ndaula. Nyinamiru, in dread of her father's anger, made an effort to throw the chikl into the waters of Lake IJweru. In her fear and haste she did not see what she was doing : the bark-cloth in which the child was wrapped caught in a branch. While the child was thus susjjended, the servant drew near to dig chiy for making * Bugoma is a forest district in the western part of Unyoro, near the Albert Nyanza. BAXTU NEGROES 595 pots, and, seeing the child, and being struck by its beauty, rescued it and took tlie babe to her home. She informed the mother that she had found a beautiful thing in the lake. The mother, conscience-stricken, and recovering her maternal feelings, arranged that that the woman should tend it. To prevent suspicion she made the Avoman a present of a barren cow as a reward for the ])0t made by the woman, and subsequently repeated the presents in the form of .milch cows until the child was full grown. As Ndaula was nearing maturity, he met and (piarrelled with the mukama's herdsmen, whose cattle drank from the same salted water holes. So overbearing was he that the king was drawn into the (juarrel, and went one day with his herdsmen, jjlaced his seat near the holes, and ordered the men to wait for Ndaula ; when he came they were to fall ujjon him and spear him. The men did as they were told, but when they lifted their spears, their arms fell powerless beside them. The king was very angry when they fled back to him with their strange news, and, leaving his seat, he took his spear and went himself to attack Xdaula. Xdaula thereui)on killed him and, coming into the circle of herdsmen, jVlaced himself upon the king's seat and proclaimed himself the king. The herdsmen then ran to the daughter of Bukuku — she was his only child— and cried out that Bukuku had been killed by Ndaula. She raised her voice and said, " To-day I have heard both evil and good— my father is dead, but my son is king." Ndaula was the first of the house of the Bachwezi. He at once divided the country into eleven parts. Bwera he gave to Wamala ; Buruli to Lubanga (rather half-witted)*; M-wengi to Mugeni ; Kiaka, being a good hunting country, to Ibona, a hunter ; Bunyara (now in North Uganda) to Mugarra (known as having a rolling walk) ; Burega (west of Lake Albert) to ^f ulindwa (he was credited with exceptional supernatural powers, even for his race— bringing death at a word) ; Chumya was given part of Uganda, as he had trading tendencies ; the Sese Islands Avere given to Mukasa t (until recently there was a praying stone — iron — called Mukasa on one of the islands) ; Bugoma was given to Nsinga ; Kahanka had Toro ; Bugaya, Bugungu, and Chiope were given to Kilo. With the exce])tion of Mukasa, these were all brothers of Ndaula. Mukasa is supposed l)y some to have been a brother, others say a follower of the family. About this time Isimbwa (the father of Ndaula) went hunting in Bukedi. There he A\as attracted by a young woman whom he saw in the field, made overtures to her, and later on the woman liore a child, Lukedi (or the " Man of Bukedi," the Land of Nakedness). There was a severe law in force in Bukedi against seduction, and search was made for the seducer of this woman, but she i-efused to expose him, and taking her people to a tree, said she had conceived as she sleiit under that tree. This tree has been called Nyabito. The Bakedi I race were known in I'nyoro as "the bad people," jirincipally on account of their fierce demeanour, accentuated by their peculiar head-dress and very black coui])lexion. Lukedi, as he grew in years, was noted for the habit he adojited of going alone on the bank of the Nile, leaning on his spear whilst standing on one leg with the other bent and the foot resting on the upright knee, his eyes ever on Unyoro * The peculiarities and characteristics of these brothers are still recorded in songs and dances. t First an ancestor, now a great ancestor spirit ruling the lake waters. X " Bakedi " means " the naked." It is the name given by the Baganda and Banyoro to the Nilotic Negroes. Bukedi is equivalent to the modern di-stricts of Acholi and Bukedi (the Lango country). 590 BANTU NEGROES o])i)osite. A story told by the old men, and in their songs, says that in Xdaula's reign a few Bakedi crossed the Nile, raided the cattle, and were practically unmolested until Xdaula's brother Kagora, a mighty man in war and in hunting, rallied the l)eoi)le together and attacked the Bakedi raiders, killing all but two, a man and a woman. These, by some sort of stratagem, recovered a lot of the cattle and took them into the forest, where they resisted all efforts to dislodge them. The people in the vicinity were exasperated by linding that every day their salted water pans (for cattle) were destroyed. 80 Kagora took the matter in hand, and caught and killed the Rukedi man. The woman, pregnant at the time, on seeing this, struck Kagora in the stomach with a stick, cursed him, foretelling that he should never have issue. A mark peculiar to females appeared on his forehead, and being thus shamed before men, he resolved to leave the earth, and disappeared heavenwards. From that day lightning is regarded as the symbol of his wrath. The woman went into the pjudonga forest, where she gave birth to so many devils that the country became noxious to the Bachwezi. Other signs of ill-fortune ap])eared, so, rendered desperate, they appealed to their oracle — in Avhich ceremony fate was read in the entrails of a cow. On this occasion they could find no stomach. A Bukedi medicine man (who happened to be a friend of young Lukedi) visited the Bachwezi. He was apjiealed to. He cut oi)en the head of the slaughtered cow, in which he found the missing stomach, told the people that its presence there signified loads on the head, and indicated the necessity of the Bachwezi packing up and moving elsewhere. This appealed to the Bachwezi, now tired with supernatural persecutions, but on leaving they suspected the Bukedi man's motives, and made ready to kill him. He was Avarned, and fled to an adjaceiit hill, saw the caravan file off, and at once went to tell Lukedi there was a country without rulers, and which waited only a strong man's effort to secure it.* By this time Lukedi was made aware of his parentage. He crossed over to Chiope ostensibly to hunt, went across the country, and aijjjeared at the usual mukama's settlement, and found that the Basita, as the aboriginal race was called, excepting only the women, were all away hunting, that being a time of exceptional famine. In the ]irinciiial house was a woman who had just given birth, and w^as seriously sick. Lukedi cured the invalid and won the women over, and by a trick secured the royal drum, which was in their keeping amongst others, and on the return of the men assumed such an attitude, heljjed by the ]iossession of the drum, that they at once accejited hinx. Thus Lukedi became king. His house is called after the name of the tree sui(2)osed by many to have been the author of his being, and is known as Babito. From him springs the present race of Bakama (" l:)ig chiefs"), who have come down in direct line as follows : — 1. Lukedi. ■1. Olimi. 3. Sansa. 4. Luhaga I. * The Bachwezi went through Bugoma to the Albert Lake. The lake opened up whilst they passed southwards with all their cattle along the dry bed, the lake closing up behind them. They then went to Bwera, where they became the dominant race. Some followers of the Bachwezi were late, and found the lake had closed up again. These returned, and were the ancestors of the T^nyoro Btihuma (or Bahinia). All evidence points to Isimhiva, the ancestor of two lines of T'nycuo kings, having been a Mtihima from Ankole. BANTU NEGROES 597 o. Chwa. 6. Wingi. 7. Luhaga II. 8. Kasoma. 9. *Kyebainbe (or Nyauiutukura). 10. Nyabongo (or Mugeiii). 11. Kamurasi. 12. Kabarega. Of these Bakania only two have reigned long — Luhaga I. and Xyamutukura. The terms of the others generally reached only nine or ten years. Kal)arega's case is also excejitional. In the case of Kyebambe, otherwise called Nyamiitukura, son of Sansa, he lived to be so old that his women occasionally caused spikes to be hidden in his bed so as to hasten his end.t Mugeni, son of Nyamiitukura, had a troubled reign, although lasting oidy nine years. There were constant rebellions. Being old at the time of accession, his. women, to avoid his following in his father's footsteps and becoming a useless encumbrance, overlaid him whilst sick, and thus killed him. Since then a law has been enforced that when a king is sick his women must be excluded from his enclosure. Before Mugeni's death, his .son Kamurasi was given the plantations of Pauka, liis cousin. The latter rebelled in Bugungu, and Kamurasi went to fight him. Pauka fled to an island on the lake. Kamurasi's followers refused to go after him there. Not caring to take Pauka's cattle, he took the i)eoi)le's instead. This caused them to rise. He was defeated and wounded in his arm. While Kamurasi was absent, Mugeni died, and the people placed his brother Nakubari on the throne. Kamurasi heard this at linrnli. He marched to Chiope, joined forces with Luyonga, the chief there, and allied himself with the Bakedi. They fought and conquered Nakubari, who was killed. Kamurasi ruled Unyoro coincidently with the reign of Suna in I'ganda. He then returned with the Bakedi to Bugungu and defeated Pauka, who was killed. He reigned nine years only. His ruling was regarded as opi)ressive. Early in his reign his six brothers rebelled and defeated liim. He tied to Buruli, but was folloA\ed, and was obliged to- take refuge on a small island hidden in the sudd. His young Iirother, of the same mother, went to him and upbraided him as a coward, threatened that if he did not recover his manhood he himself would collect an army and fight the rebels, and if he won he should seize the throne. Kamurasi, regaining courage, followed him, joined forces, and killed the six brothers. That left three relatives (probably cousins), who seized Chiope. The people there welcomed them. Kamurasi repeatedly sent armie.s. to Chiope, until the people fled to Bukedi. A year's residence there tired them, and they returned. They fought three battles, in each of which one of the relatives was killed. The Chiope people, loyal to their choice, placed Til)ulihwa, a son of one of the relatives, on the throne as their king. (He was afterwards killed by Kabarega.)- Kamurasi, however, merely ignored him. Soon after he died. Kabarega then reigned. His brothers objected, rebelled, defeated him, and jtlaced Kabagomiri in his stead. Kabarega tied to Buruli with a brother. Kabagonga. They returned against Kabagomiri and defeated him. He fled to Ankole, soon collected an army there, returned, and was defeated by Kabarega, and a great number of the Bankole were slaughtered. (Ireta was captured here as a boy.) Kabarega got help from Mutesa in this fight. (Kangawo was sent.) Kabagomiri quietly went round the * Koboyo, his son, rebelled and took possession of Toro. t He was too old and feeble even to retaliate. 598 BANTU NEGROES outskirts to Cliiope, where he somehow got twenty " Turks " of Egypt. At the same time Kabarega secured thirty Sudanese soldiers. In a fight Kabagomiri was shot in the chest, and Kabarega was secure. Soon after Baker Pasha arrived, and from that time the history of the country is well known. The story may be worth adding that Ndaula Avas a man of extraordinary enter- prise. Among other things, he built a house so large that it took four years to finish it. A great point handed down is that it had' eighteen doors, and that there was no e(iual to it within knowledgeable distance. Allot lier version of this legend of Lukedi and the history of the Unvoro dynasty has been furnished to the present writer by the Kev. A. B. P'isher, of the Church ^Missionary Society's mission in Unyoro : — Lukedi was a great hunter of supernatural ])Owers, greatly feared by all. One day he crossed the river, coming south into a stranger's country. Entering a large enclosure, he saw there a beautiful woman whose name was Kilemera. This woman he took to be his wife, and first built his house in Chiope, but only remained there tW'O months, and finally made a big capital at ^Nluduma. But here he had trouble with his wife Kilemera, who finally left him and emigrated to Uganda with a large following, and became the mother of many children. After the separation from his wife Lukedi was taken ill and died. His eldest son, by his former wife Kilemera, whose name was Lukedi T^wamgalaki, became the head of the peoi)le whom Lukedi had ruled. He became a great king, and made his capital in Bugachya ; afterwards moved to Bujawe, and thei-e died. Kyebambe, his son, was made king in his place. He moved his capital into Bugoma, and there died. Luwaga reigned in his stead, but being dissatisfied with the country of Bugoma, he moved back again to Chiope, and then finally settled in Bugaya ; here he died, and his son San.sa became king. This man roamed the country, never stopping long in one place. While at Kilimba he fought with a great I^ganda king called Semakokiro, and during the fight Semakokiro was killed. Soon after this one of Sansa's servants seduced his master's wife. He was called up for trial before the king, and when judgment was given against him he seized a spear and killed the king. Then followed a king called Chwa, who died, and whose son Luwanga followed. Then after him came Nanuitukula, wdio was followed by his son Mugenyi. This last sent his son Patigo to fight the Balega, who returned with many slaves and much cattle. His son Kaboyo rebelled against him, and finally settled in Toro and became king there. Mugenyi then died, and Kamulasi became king of Bunyoro and made his capital at Kilagula. At his death his son Kabarega became king. Kabarega at once sent an expedition against Kaboyo, who was then the rebel king of Toro, and demanded a tax to be paid in cows. This Kaboyo did, but when asked to do it a second time he refused. Kabarega then sent i\Iugenyi, his son, to fight. The battle was long and fierce, and no advantage seemed on either side. Kabarega, when he heard of the inability of his son to conquer Toro, came himself, and, together with his son, made another fight against Kaboyo. However, Kaboyo fought with such zeal that he finally drove back to Unyoro Kabarega's army, Kabarega himself being wounded. Kaboyo did not long survive this battle. He died at Karyainiyaga, and his son Oliini became king of Toro. Meanwhile Kabarega was collecting his scattered forces, and as soon as Kaboyo was dead he sent off his general, Tegulekwa, to try and reconquer the country. "When Olimi heard of this, he sent messages to the king of Ankole, ]\Iutainbuka, BAXTU XEG110i:S r)no m^ , ^ ^^^Bbv pp B^!*^M||BgMili\\ \. \ \ 1 « ^^^^^- ! \ ii i k^^ and asked for help. This Avas readily given. Instead, however, of going to fight Kabarega, the army went into Busongola, fought with till' people there, and conquered the country. Kabarega's second attempt also failed. However, there was much dissatisfaction amongst Olimi's chiefs. Kalikula, a big chief, rebelled and fought against Inni, and conquered his army. Then Kabarega sent off" Mate- bere and Lusongoza with a great force, and when Olimi heard of it he fled to Bada. Then all his chiefs fought against him, and betrayed him into the hands of Matebere, who, having conquered the Avhole of Toro, returned to Kabarega with Olimi as his jirisoner, leaving Mukalusa, one of his under-generals, to guard the country. Finally, Kabarega sent Kikukule to take his place. All the princes then escaped to Ankole, and were kindly treated by the queen-mother (Xamasole), whose name Avas Kiboga. During this period the Baganda made many raids into Toro, a notable one being that led by the Mukwenda, Kiyega, who brought with him Kakende, and left him there to be the king. The Balusula were driven from Toro during the raid, and Kakende built his capital at Kisomolo. But he did not remain there long, for Kabarega, after two attempts, drove him from the country, and he returned to Uganda. Kasagama, who was then quite young and living in Ankole Avith the other refugees, also went into Uganda. After a few months Captain Lugard brought Kasagama back to Toro and made him king. Kasagama, Ibe king of Toro (of Unyoro race), gave the following additional legends about the coming of Lukedi. his partly mythical ancestor (the translation was sujjplied so n^.e by ]Mr. Fisher, C.3I.S.) : — . . . Wamala, king of Bunyoro, sent off a messenger, who went and stood on the shores of the lake and called aloud to Isimbwa's son to come and take possession of the country. Then came Lukedi himself to the lake shore, bringing with him a goat and a fowl and a child, who was decked out with numerous beads on his neck, arms, and legs. They put a crown of nine beads on his head, and a large band of nine beads on either leg ; then they threw him into the lake as aii offering to the gods. Lukedi then crossed the lake into the country of Kanyadwoli, and while resting in the shade of a tree a man brought to him a pipe of tobacco to smoke, which he did, and then knocked the ashes out on to the ground. Innnediately a plant of tobacco sprang uj). He then proceeded towards AVamalas capital, VOL. II. 9 334. k.\s.u;a,ma, KINC OF TOKO, .VXO PRINCESS OF CXYORO) 000 BANTU NEGEOES ■who came out and greeted him heartily. The chair ^o they crossed ov^er into Unyoro, but for \arioiis reasons — possibly the hostility of the Bantu Negroes aa'Iio had preceded them — did not at first remain there, but pushed steadily south till they reached the healthier plateaux of Toro, Ankole, and Karagwe.* It is possible that in all these lands to the Avest and .south-Avest of the Victoria Nyanza they did not meet Avith such a determined resistance from the former occujiants of the soil. avIio may have been the pioneers of the Bantu Negroes, and J-'ygmies, like those of the Congo Forest. In those healthy uplands which lie between the Avest coast of the Victoria Nyanza and the vicinity of Tanganyika the Gala in\aders of Equatorial Africa dwelt in security Avith their herds of long-horned cattle, increased and multiplied, and began to stretcli out their hands toAA'ards the north as Avell as the south and «nist (to a great extent the Congo Forest barred their progress Avestwardsj. Tlieir jiioneers. much * They may also— possibly did do so — haA'e ]iursued the line of least resistance by crossing the Nile at the outlet of Lake Albert, journeying along the Avestern coast of that lake, and so on uj) the 8emliki Valley to Ankole, keeping to the east of the Congo Forest. BANTU NEGllOES (*,()1 nfter the fasliiou related in the legends, must have retraced the path of their raee to I'nyoro. At the same time, no doubt, subsequent to the original invasion, other bands of Gala people had quitted the Aeholi and l.ango countries to establish themselves in Unyoro. The original source from which these Gala herdsmen came mu-t have become exhausted, while the multiplication and increased vigour in arms of the Nile negroes of the Masai-Turkana stock and of certain sections of stranded l>antu negroes to the east of the Victoria Nile probably barred the way to any further intercourse l)etween the lands of the Gala and the Somali on tlie east and the Victoria Nyanza on the west. >So it came about in time tluit I'nyoro was added to the kingdoms or states which were governed by kings of Gala descent, or at any rate by an aristocracy or ruling caste of (iala blood— blood, of course, with which inevitably that of the indigenous Negro was mingled in varying degree. Leading men of this Eahima stock nuist have founded dynasties in Unyoro, Uganda, Karagwe, and other countries between the Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika. At one time, no doubt, there was a "kitwara," or emperor, of Hima blood who grouped together under his rule the countries of I'ganda, Unyoro, Toro, Ankole, and Karagwe. This was probably the heyday of Hamitic civilisation, which subsequently declined through internecine wars and the gradual " negrification " of these countries — that is to say, the decline in proportionate numbers of the people of pure Hamitic stock and the disproportionate increase of the Bantu Negro. There seems early to have sprung up a separate dynasty in the countries which are now groujoed together as the Kingdom of Uganda, and some cause at the same time brought al)out a distinct separation in language between those whom we may call the Kaganda (the people ol Euddu, Sese, the home districts of Uganda, Kiagwe, and Eusoga). and both Negroes and Hamites in the domain of Unyoro. The si)eech of Unyoro extends at the present day with very little variation from the A'ictoria Nile and the Albert Nyanza on the north through Toro, Ankole. Karagwe, Kuanda, and Eusinja to the south-west shore of the Victoria Nyanza, and to within a short distance of the north end of Tanganyika. This language also rea})pears on the Bukerebe Archipelago in the southern part of the Victoria Nyanza. It may safely be assumed that wherever the Unyoro dialects are found at the present day there the allied dynasties of Eahima origin have ruled— are, in fact, ruling now. Eut in I'ganda (as will be seen in the following chapter) the dynasty, though it sometimes claims descent from an Hamitic stock and to liave had the same founders as started the royal houses of Unyoro and Ankole, nevertheless has remained much more negro in features (judging by its recent kings) than is the case in Ankole and Karagwe. It is quite possible that the kings G02 BANTU NEGROES of rt,Mii(la (It'-ceiid from an aiice-tor who was a J5antu negro with little or no lliiiia blood in his veins, and that snch slight refinement of feature as some of the l^aganda princes or princesses display is merely due to their Bantu progenitors having married women of Hima origin. Indeed, for the matter of that, the ex- king of Unyoro, Kabarega, who claims descent from an Hamitic ancestor, is quite a negro in appearance, as was his father. Kamurasi. It is only in xVukole, Karagwe, and other countries to the south that the royal families seem to be of modified Gala blood, even thoush many of the subsidiarv chiefs and much of the aiistocracv in all these countries (excepting Uganda) are of such clear Hamitic descent that many of them strangely resemble ancient and n:odern Egyptians. In Uganda proper the Bahima never seem to have obtained such a hold over the country as farther to the north and west. The Hima element in the dynasty is, as I have already said, due to kings of Uganda having mai'ried handsome slaves or princesses from Unyoro or Ankole. In Uganda the people of Hima stock at the present day have become a cattle- herding caste which marries within its own limits, and mixes but little with the Bantu Negroes. ."Nlr. (jreorge AVilson* has been kind enough to forward me the following fables, stories, and legends which he has obtained from the Banyoro. It should be premised that the beast stories much resemble those of other parts of Negro Africa, besides certain fables of European or Asiatic origin. In all the African stories, however, the hare takes the place of the fox as the embodiment of astuteness, and the leopard replaces the wolf of European folk-lore. P'ables. (1) The Greedy Hyctna. — One day a hyaena went to visit some of his friends. In the house there was a small calabash standing, in which oil had been. He straightway ate the calabash. \Yliilst walking over the room he saw some cateri»illars. Those he also ate. In fact, everything he saw — skins, refuse, etc. — be devoured. His friends said to him, " Why do you eat thus grossly ? You are very greedy ; you must take some medicine to cure your great greediness." '"TriUy," replied the byjena, "I badly need such medicine; I am very greedy."' "Follow the road to the left," said the friend, " and ask the way until you find the bouse of the wizard who cures greed." The byiena went on bis w^ay, asking it from time to time, until he reached the bouse of the Mubuma.t " Can you cure greediness ? " asked the bytena. " Yes," said the Mubuma ; '" sit down and I will prejjare a cure." A sheep was brought and killed. At once the hyiena exclaimed, '" Ah ! I Avant to eat it." " Well, I'm sure I " said the ]\[ubuma. " You come here for a cure for * Now Deputy Commissioner for the Uganda Protectorate. t In Unyoro the Hima caste is called Huma (>na'.s neck. A water- jar having- been given him, he was told to fetch water in which to cook the tail foi- the medicine. On the way he said to a friend who had gone with him, " Why should 1 carry this tail which smells so nice? Come, let us eat it." "Nonsense!" said the friend. "You must be cured." Again the scent of the meat overcame him, and again the friend said, " No ; you must ba cured." " Mang the cure ! " .said the hyaena, and, bursting the cord which held the tail, promptly demolished the meat. Until this day the hyiena is still possessed with the disease of greediness. (2) T'he Leopard.— In olden times leopards never caught their victims by the throat, always by the arm. One day a man, on being caught by the arm, and having the good fortune to escape, boasted publicly of his great luck, saying, " What a foolish beast the leoi)ard is ! If with its enormous strength it caught by the throat, it would be sure of every victim, whereas now what harm is done when it only catches the arm?" The leopard, who happened to be ])assing, heard the boast, and in its turn said, " What a fool is man to teach his enemies how to kill him ! " From that day the leopard has caught its victims by the throat. (3) The Ili/cerias Crij. — This fable is the Unyoro version of "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." A hysena, whilst wandering in search of food one night, passed by a hut in which a sick man was lying, being tended by his friends. The hyaena listened to their talk. " Why," said one man, " does he not die when he is so sick and let us bury him cpiickly, instead of keeping us Avaiting here throughout the night." " Ah," thought the hyosna, " why should 1 tire myself wandering on, when I have a meal so near at hand. It will be but little trouble to me to unearth him after he is buried." So he waited on till the man should die and be buried. The man, however, recovered ; and in the morning, on looking out, the hyjena was seen by the friends to be walking away disconsolately. A little later they heard it howling and crying out, "The owner of that house is crazy ; he has been drinking liquor ('mwengi'). He kept me from searching for my food last night, saying the .sick man was about to die. The man has not died, and so I have had no food, and am hungry. Are they all drunk 1 " Until this day this is the hyiena's cry. (4) The Hare and the Tortoise. — A hare and a tortoise were great friends. One day, having decided to search for their food, they went out and dug a hole in an ant-heap to trap the ants as they came out. As the time drew near for them to collect them, the hare thought, " Why should an old fool like the tortoise share the feast with me; I can easy outwit him." Thereupon he told his friends to wait in a quiet place for the tortoise, to fall upon him, and, being careful not to hurt him, carry him into the long grass, through which he would have great difliculty in pushing his way back, then the hare might enjoy the feast alone, and directly he had finished scamper oft' home. The tortoise, already tired and vexed with the struggle of making his way through the long grass, went to the ant-hill and found nothing left. He was interested, however, in seeing the footjirints of his conn-ade there, and more vexed as it flashed upon him how he had been outwitted. "Ah, my cunning friend," said he, "I will be even with you for thi.s." On reaching home he was met by the hare, who eft"u.sively received him. " My dear old comrade," said he, " how thankful 1 am to see you safe ! I feared you were killed 1 I only escaped myself by the merest chance. Three spears fell quite close to me : we must not go to that ant-hill anymore." "Never mind," said the tortoise, "our enemies are not likely to be at the same spot again : it will be quite safe to go another day." The tortoise, knowing the selfish hare would sneak out to feast alone, arranged with his friends to catch the hare when engrossed with his meal, 001- BANTU XEGUOES "Wait for him," said he, " and Avhen he has his liead deep in the hole, ])Ounce u])on him. ])Ut,"' he achled, remeniliering the friendship tlie hare had shown him in not orderinj,Hiini to be killed, "do not kill him." "Oh," remonstrated the fiicnds "Ave like hare, we -want to eat him." "Very well," said the tortoise, "bnt if you lull him quickly, he will be tough. You must take him home, make a i ot ready half-tilled with tine oil and salt, put the hare in it, and leave a hole in the cover so that you may aild eold water from time to time, for if you let the oil get hot you will com])letely spoil the hare, so be very carefnl net to let it boil." The friends did e.xactly as they were told. They trapped the hare and carried him back with them, put him in the pot with the nicest of oil and the proper amount of salt, and placed it on the fire. Water was added occasionally through the hole made in the cover. After some hours, when all was thought to be ready, the friends having washed their hands and nicely laid out the dishes and seated themselves expectantly, the pot was placed in the middle of them, the cover withdrawn, when hey 1 presto, out popped the hare and to their horror scrambled off. "Dear me," said the tortoise as he received him, "where have you baen?" "Alas!" said the hare, ''I have been in great danger ; I nearly lost my life. I have been caught, cooked, and only by a miracle escaped with my life." As he said this he began to lick himself. The tortoise, noticing a look of pleasure rapidly succeed that of fright with which he had tii'st entered, went across and also began licking the hare. " How delicious 1 " said he. " Get away I " said the greedy hare ; " you have not been in the pot, nor been through all the trials I've been through. Keep ofi' ! " The tortoise, feeling that his cunning had supplied the oil and salt, began to wax angry. " Let me have your left shoulder and side to lick." " I will not," said the hare, more and more enjoying himself. The tortoise left in a great fury, and ran into the arms of his friends, who were coming to him in a towering rage. " What did you mean 1 " said they. " Through your advice we have lost not only the hare, but also all our beautiful oil and salt. When we uncovered the ]iot the hare jum])ed out and ran off with it all clinging to him." " Dear me," said the tortoise, in his rage lost to every feeling of friendship, " this is very sad. Now, I will tell you what to do. Arrange a dance and invite the hare, and when he is dancing to your tom-toms, seize him, and this time kill him."' This was done, not a moment being lost, when once the hare was trapped, in killing, skinning, and cutting him up, so as to ensure his not this time escajiing. And thus the hare himself was outwitted, and perished through his greediness and selfishness. (")) The Hare and the EUphant. — One day a hare came U])on an elephant standing expectantly at an ant-hole which had only that morning been dug by himself with a view to his evening meal. '' What hard luck ! " said the hare. " What can I do against that big hulking brute, who wants to steal my dinner ? I will try a plan." He returned to his home, made a torch of four reeds, and passed by the elephant at a great pace. " Who are you % " said the latter. " I'm a hare." " Where are you going?" " Oh," said the hare, "we hear that an elephant is stealing our ants," and then scampered otf. A little farther on he imt out the torch, and sneaked round by a by-Avay to his home, relighted the torch, and again went to the elephant- " Who are you % " said the big beast. " A hare." " Where are you going ? " " Oh," said the hare, " my comrades called me because an elephant is stealing our ants," and again went off quickly. As before, he sneaked round to his home, and then passed the elephant. " Who are you ? " said the elephant. " I'm a hare." " Where are you going ? " " Haven't you seen my fellows pass this way 'I We are meeting ill numbers, as we mean to have our meal which an enemy is trying to steal," and again ran off. Croing round once more to his home, he again came up with the elephant BANTU NEGROES (m "Who are your' said tlif l)ig animal. " I'lii a hare." " Where are you going ? " "Arc you blind that you haven't seen my comrades passing? However, I've no time to talk." The elephant, affected by the air of my.stery, became unea.sy, and thought it time to be off. When the hare came round for the last time he saw nothing but the wagging of the elejjhant's tail in the distance. So he screamed out, " There he is ! there he is ! After him ! after him ! " and laughed uproariously as he heard the big brute crashing through the woods. He then went (piietly back alone to his feast, chuckling as he thought of the sjilcndid success of his stratagem. (6) The Bird (tnd the Elephant. — Just as the season for sowing graiu was drawing near, the bird and the elephant met, and became involved in an argument as to who had the bigger voice. The dispute getting heated, they decided to lay the question before the big assembly. "We have come," piped the little bird, "to have the (juestion settled as to who has the bigger voice, my friend the elei)hant or myself?" "Yes," grunted the elephant, "this insignificant little thing has the impudence to say his little squeak is more powerful than my trumpeting." " Well," said the little bird, "our homes are two hours away. Do you think that, if you bawled your loudest, your peojile would hear you call from here ? " " Of course," sneered the elephant ; " but what do you think yoti are going to do, you puny little thing?" "Now% don't get angry," chirped the bird. "To-morrow morning we will meet at dawn, and l)otli call to our friends to have our dinner ready ; bat, as you sneered at me, we will make the stakes ten cows, to be paid by the loser to the winner." " Eight you are ! " chuckled the elephant. " I want some more cattle. Good-bye, you little fool ! " and went off laughing. The bet was confirmed by the "baraza." The cunning bird at once made arrangements. He got his mates to perch within hearing distance of each other along the line to his house. " Now we will see," said he, " how wit can triumjih over brute force." At dawn the next morning they met as agreed. The elephant was given " first try," and bawled four times in his loudest voice. "Have you quite done?" chirped the little bird. "Yes,"' sneered the elephant ; " squeak away." The little bird gave his orders, and tliey tram])ed off together. They decided that the elephant being the bigger, they would visit his home first. As they drew near, the elephant became uneasy at the quiet tliat reigned, and was extremely angry to find not a soul about. One was away getting food, another drawing watei-, another gathering firewood, and the rest, not exjiecting anything to occur, wei'e also out. " Now," said the bird, " we will try my luck." As they a])])roached they heard great sounds of bustling ; the pathways were clean, the courtyard swept, the bird's friends were all neatly arranged in lines to do honour to the guest ; mats were laid down in the house, and an abundant feast was prepared. "Ah, my friend,' piped the little bird, "do not hz down-hearted. I'e thankful you have learnt at so small a cost not to des])ise a rival, however small he may be. 80 now let us 'eat, drink, and be merry.'" Next day the elejihant handed over the cattle to the bird. Miscellaneous Stories. At the beginning of Kabarega's reign there was a man called Muguta, who refused to obey any of the orders of the king. Any messengers sent for taxes, or to call him for labour even for the king, were always met with the same answer : "I will obey no man. Wait till I call my servants, the lions." Mnguta was all- powerful. If he wanted anything— whether food, cattle, or any other thing— he 000 liANTU NEGROES threatened that if it were not forthcoming he would send his liuns to ]iunish those Avho liad refused hiui. Several of the greater chiefs defied him, but in every case they were brought to their knees by the losses inflicted on their people or cattle by the lions he sent.* Kabarega became interested, and sent a messenger to Muguta challenging him to send his lions. Three days after two of the lions appeared insiile the king's enclosure and killed a cow. The i)eople were ready in large numbers, and as a lion attacked a man it was riddled A^ith l)ullets, whilst the other escaped. Kabarega placed no significance on the death of the lion, but admitted ^Nluguta had proved his power by sending the lions. Kabarega received his talisman, and thenceforth exempted Muguta from all obligations. Byabaswezi, the ])resent chief, was one of the party sent by Kabarega to wait for the lions. In Major Thruston's time, about 1894, four of Muguta's women were captured by the Sudanese. Three days after nine lions appeared in Hoima. The Sudanese released the women, and paid ^Nluguta four goats on receiving the talisman. [Nluguta is still living, now very old and decrepit. His whereabouts liave been recently los-t sight of. The following is one of the ve;sions most current in L'nyoro of the oft-told Uganda legend respecting Kintu, the founder of the Unyoro- I'ganda dynasty : — Kintu was inunortal. He was in the habit of periodically visiting God for the purpose of reporting on the work he had done on earth. These visits were made on a hill called Magonga, which has consequently been carefully guarded up to the commencement of Mwanga's reign. There was one condition always laid down by the Divinity, which was that on no account was Kintu to turn back or pay another visit v;nless he were called. His orders were that " he was to do no evil ; he mu.st not steal." God gave him a bag which was not to be separated from him, or even be touched by any other jierson. One day, whilst under the effects of liquor, he Avent to the hill ]\Iagonga, where he dropped his bag, not immediately noticing his loss. Forgetting his order, he went back for it, to find God very angry with him. "Why did you come back here, -when I gave you strict orders not to come unless you were called ? " Some versions of the legend say that he Avas forbidden to return to his home, and a young man, symbolical of the Sijirit of Death, t Avas ordered to be continually beside him. In any case, he never did return. The ]ieople regarded his absence as an indication of God's Avrath, and to provide for him in case he Avas still alive they Ijuilt a large house in the forest on ^Nlagonga, and every nine days carried food there. This custom, as Avell as the guard, Avas kept up till MAvanga's time, Avhen the intestine Avars interfered Avith most of the old usages and habits. To propitiate God's Avrath in His anger against Kintu's dis- obedience it Avas decreed that Kintu's laAv, Avhich Avas that nobody should Avork on every seventh clay and on the first day of each new moon, should be perpetuated. To this day any person, no matter Avhat his offence may have been, or in AA'hat AA'ay he may be ordered to be punished, if he es?ape and reach the hill Magonga, must be liberated — in fact, it Avas regarded as a "hill of refuge" till quite recently, and in every Avay had been considered sacred. * The chiefs bought !Muguta off by ])resents, receiving as a talisman that he Avould not molest them again a piece of carvetl Avood. It Avas never knoAvn to fail. + Some .sav of Sickness. BANTU NEGROES G(i7 Some description lias already been given of the physical aspect of the Eairo.* who form the Inilk of the Negro ])Opulation of Ankole. For tlie most part they are regular Bantu Negroes in a}t}»earance. thougli occasionally presenting types which recall the West African Negro or even the Pygmy- Prognathous element that forms the lowe.-t stratum of most of these populations. The word *' Bairo " is apparently the Hima designation of those whom the proud Hamitic invaders regard as their slaves. The word is said really to mean •■ slaves,"' and its root '--iro "' or " -iru "' to be the same as the '• -ddu ■' t which is the root of the Luganda word for slave. (" Muddu " is a slave, " Baddu " means slaves, and -Buddu" the country of slaves.) Amongst themselves the Bairo. who are divided into numerous clans, take the names of Basita, Ngando, Basamlio, Baitera, Bayondo. Abagaihe, Bawobogo. Bashikoto. Balisi, Bachawa, and Bareiidi, though all these clans have now become so mixed as to be fused generally under the common race-name of Bairo. The Bairo vear dressed skins or hark-clo'h. However little they may have in the way of clothing, they generally so arrange it, as do the Ba^anda, to safegfuard deeencv ; whereas the men of their Bahima aristo- cracy are more like the ]\Iasai, inasmuch as they rarely think it necessary to use their body coverings as tegmnenta pndendorum. The Bairo wear ivory, copper, and iron bracelets, and anklets of the same materials. The Bairo are agriculturists, as opposed to the Bahima, which last- named caste rarely if ever cultivates the soil under any conditions. The food crops of the Bairo are bananas, sorghum, eleusine, maize, beans, sweet potatoes, and pum[)kins. Tobacco is grown both to be smoked and taken as snuff. The domestic aninmls of the Bairo are cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and fowls. Until the British power grew strong enough in the country to control the Bahima, few if any among the Bairo would have been permitted to keep cattle, these being regarded as the special jarerogative of the Hima aristocracy. The Bairo are great hunters. When food is scarce (such as between the seasons of croj^s), it is a general custom for the Bairo to organise a hunt of big and small game on a large scale. Nets about four feet broad and of indefinite length are made of rope manufactured (apparently) from the bark of a Hibiscus tre?. A large number of men proceed to the vicinity of the ascertained presence of * .Lieutenant :Mandy, who has furnished some of my information about the Bairo, spells the name Ba-hiro. Other travellers spell it Wiro or Whiro. When I was amongst these peojtle myself and wrote down their dialects, it seemed to me that the word was i)ronounced exactly as I now spell it (Ba-iro), though there was a slight hiatus between the '• Ba-" ]irefix and the " -iro" root. t In all these tongues "r"' and '" d " and "l" are i»ractically interchangeable m jironunciation. ,^35. A .MIIKII AM) A MnilMA: (/) IS THIO .MUIKO (JIAIKO); (A) IS Till-: .MLHl.MA (liAHIMA) BANTU NEG110E8 COO game and en ct their nets in long lines, supporting them bv means of eanes. Some of the men cut a few branches and place them in such a position on the opposite side of the net frdin that on which the drise takes place that they may hide behind the liriishwuod. A considerable section of the ))arty is then sent out to (irive the game towards the nets which they do by shouting, blowing horns, setting their dogs to b;irk, and lieating the gi'ass. The frightened animals flee before this noisy crowd in the direction of the nets, and when they are brought up bv the.e obstructions the negroes who are hidden under the brushwood at the back of the net rise up and d<'spatch tlnMu with sjiears. Oeeasionallv lions and leopards are diiven up with tln^ rest of the game, but thes(^ are ordinal ily allowed to escape by the Ijairo, though a Muhima will fearlessly approach and spear these fierce beasts. Besides these hunts on a large scale with nets, pitfiiUs are dug and are coverefl with twigs and grass. Converging fences of branches are constructed leading to these pitfalls as the only exit, and drives take place to urge the gamt^ towards them. Slip-knots hung from the branches of trees are also used as snares; and the weighted harpoon sns[)ended point downwanls o\er the (rack of elephants, liippopotr.muses, or btiffaloei is also in use, though it does not seem to be a very successful device. The Bairo build their houses singly or in gi-oups in or near their plantations. The hut is very similar in appearance to that of the peasant in Uganda, with an untidy haycock roof coming nearly down to the ground and a low doorway. Inside there is little or no attempt at division by screens, nor is there much fui-nitnre. Very often the only bed is a skin spread on the floor. In the vicinity of Lake Albert Edward the Ijairo construct ca)wes which are almost square in shape, like square tubs. They ar(» made of thin, hard boards — boards that are split and adzed — sewn together witli the tendons of animals. The paddles are about four feet long, more than half of which is a narrow blade. The cKjricaltural implements of the Piairo are hoes (heart-shaped with an iron tail, which is made to pass through a hole in the end of the wooden handle and is secured by means of wedges), a sickle with a long handle, axes with blades about an inch and a half broad, and small pointed knives. The weapons of the Bairo are poorly made spears, bows and arrows, and clubs of hard wood. The Bairo do a little smelting and welding of iron. They make poor pottery and weave grass mats. When a young Muiro wishes to marry, he presents the father of the girl with ten grass bundles containing flour, several jars of beer (made either from sorghum or from fermented bananas), and a number of sheep, according to his means. After the bride is conducted to her husband's (no BANTU XECniOES house, she is suj)]io>('il to rciiiaiii within tht^ lioiise or its close \iciiiitv for ritisli and partly (iernian territory, to the south-west of Ankole. The type is sprinkled less frequently over the large country of Kuanda (Bunyaruanda), to the south of Mpororo, and rea}>pears again with more frequency in Burundi. Buha, Karagwe, and Businja. Almost pure-blooded Bahima are also met witli on the islands opposite the south-west coast of the ^'ictoria Nyanza. I have even seen traces of this type amongst the negro tribes down the west coast of Tanganyika, and amid the Manyema, and perhaps also here and there on the Nyasa-Tanganyika Plateau. I could quite imagine that the superior and less Negro-like featm^es often met with among the Zulu Kaffirs and the Bantu tribes of the Central Zambezi may be explained by these tribes having migrated not very many centuries ago from some locality in East ( *entral Africa, where their ancestors had received an infiltration of Hima blood. In phjisical appearance a more or less pure-blooded Muhima may be described as follows : Both sexes incline to be tall and possess remarkably graceful and well-proportioned figures, with small hands and feet. The feet, in fact, are often very beautifully formed, quite after the classical Eui"opean model. I'nder natural conditions there is no tendency to cor})ulence, nor to the exaggerated development of muscle so characteristic of the burly Negro. In iact. the Bahima have tlie figures and proportions of Europeans. The rather rounded head with its almost European features rises on a long, graceful neck well above the shoulders, which incline to be sloping. The }ioise of the head is. therefore, very unlike that of the ordinary negro, whose neck is short. The superciliary arch is well marked, though not exaggerated. The nose rises high from the depression between the e^yebrows. is straight, finely carved, with a prominent tip and thin nostrils. Tiie nose, in fact, in a pure-blooded Hima might be that of a handsome Berber or European. The lips are somewhat fuller than in Euro})eans, but perlia}>s not more so than amongst the Berbers or fSomali. The mouth is often small, and the upper lip is well shaped, with no great distance between it and the base of the nose. The chin is well developed. The ear is large, but not dispro})ortionately so. compared to Euro])eans or Berbers. The colour of the skin in all people of more or less pure Hima blood is much lighter than in' the average Negro, being sometimes quite a pale yellow or reddisli yellow. The present writer has seen individuals whom he mistook entirely for natives of Egypt, thinking them to have been stranded in Unyoro in connection with Em in Pasha's service. Others, again, he took for Aral) traders I'rom the coast. An Unyoro princess, who was a relation of Kasagama. king of Toro, was certainly no darker in the colour of her skin than an Egyptian peasant woman. A Mum.MA or IMroRORO. BANTU NEGROES 017 The one feature in whicli the l^ahinm resemble Negroes rather than the Caucasian race, the one irn^fVawalile proof that tliev liave at one time ;..l .I.M.v ' '. ..;sKc.)l.; mingled eonsicleralily with the black race, is the character of the hair on the head and body. This hair is nearly as woolly as in the ordinary Negro, and has also the same appearance, especially over the temples and fore part of the skull, of growing in separate tufts. All body-hair is (ns BANTU NEGROES plucked out with tweezers, so that it is difficult to say what chanu-ter it a^sulKes. In the case of the women (as will be seen by two of my l:liotographs) the head-hair, if allowed to grow freely, becomes rather long, and^tliough tightly curled is less woolly and more fuzzy than the negro woman's hair. These natural ringlets, indeed, are an approximation towards the curly hair of the Somali and x\byssinian. All moustache and A Ml IIIMA \\i iMA.N ' i\ AN h' '1,1. beard is normally i)ulled out amongst the men, but I believe that otherwise they might show a considerable gi'owth of hair on the face. The Eahima oiever practise circuincision, neither do they pierce nor mutilate the ear in any fashion, or knock out their teeth. In some districts they are given to a certain amount of scar-oroiamentation, but this is not l)usiied to the same extreme as amongst the forest negroes and the ser\ile races dwelling in proximity to the Bahima. As regards their dress and 343- -^-^" OI.I' MIHI.MA WOMA-V, ANKOl.E 620 jjAXTi m:(iroj:s ornaments, they probalily wore skin mantles exelusi\ely in early days. The men display little or no anxiety to cover the })udenda. Tlie women covered themselves most elaborately wirli skins (especially out of doors) in the days before (Mthcr liark-cloth or the calico of Europe and Asia was used among them. Ever since the Arab traders of Zanzil^ar came to these countries (first in about 1845), the use of Bombay, American, or Manchester cotton goods has spread widely amongst the Bahima, especially among their women. In parts of Southern Ankole, however, the girls customarily go quite naked until married. The married women at their poorest wear a short skirt or apron of j)alm fibre or grass, an illustration of which is given amongst the Hima weapons on p. 625. 31en and women both wear charms round the neck hung on strings. These consist of little pieces of polished wood which have been blessed by the medicine man, or else other substances supposed to have magical qualities, which are tied up in closely wound leather thongs. Iron, copper, and brass wire are beaten out to make necklaces, wdiich are hung with kauris or large beads. They also make armlets of wire, and bracelets of ivory, iron, copper, brass, and anklets of the same materials. Tight wire armlets are often fastened round the upper part of the left arm, and below the knee of each leg. Necklaces and head- rings are also made of innumerable fine circles cut from the shells of water molluscs. The women not infrequently employ kamis to decorate these head- and neck-rings. The Bahima men when herding cattle will — like the Masai and other cattle-keeping tribes in the east of the Protectorate — cover themselves all over with white kaolin till they look like lepers, for some purpose I have not been able to understand. The food of the true-blooded Bahima is, as a rule, restricted to the milk of their cows, and the flesh of such cattle, sheep, and goats as they kill. BaiTen cows are generally fattened up for killing. In default of such meat, where disease or misfortune in warfare has brought about the loss of their herds, they will eat (reluctantly) unripe bananas or even the sorghum corn. Besides milk, they drink largely two forms of alcoholic beverage. One is " museru," a thick beer made from grain (sorghum or eleusine), and the other '• marwa," the fermented juice of the ripe banana. The Bahima never, under any circumstances, till the soil. All agriculture which may be carried on in the countries they inhabit is the work of the Bantu negroes who live with them as subjects or friends. Besides cattle, sheep, and goats, the Bahima keep a few dogs, and occasionally possess fowls, though both the dog and the fowl are much more commonly kept by their subject negro peo})les. The Bahima, in fact, take little interest in any creatures but their cattle, which they almost worship. The Hima ox is of that Gala type already referred to several times in this book. The pure breed has a straight back without a hump, and is of a fawn, dun, grey, or white colour, sometimes 344- -^ Ml'lllMA Wi.iMAX, ANKOI.K G22 JiANTU NEGROES 34=. A MUIIMA WUMAN, li,AMiA variegated with blotolies or spots of white or colour. Tiie horns are enormous in tlie adult animal, and are usually longer in the cow than in the hull, sonic hulls having horns of no great length. The breed not Ijeing 346. MUHIMA MAX, AITEK IlKlilUM: CAITIK, SMKAIIKH WITH KAOLIN (i2 L BANTU NEGllOES evcrvwhcrc fVcc IVoiii iiilcriiiixt luc with the zchii or iiuiii[;e(l type (wliicli constitutes the alternative eat tie in tropical Africa), the Hinia ox occasionally exhibits a hump on the shoulders and an exaggerated dewlap. This breed of ox seems to reach its typical development in the Gala countries forming the southern half of the Abyssinian dominions. It may be connected in origin with the long-horned cattle of Southern Europe and Hungary. There is, as far as I am aware, nothing like it amongst the domestic oxen of Asia. This biy- lonijf-liorned ox is rather curiously distributed in Africa. 347. HIMA CATTLE In a somewhat dwarfed form it may be met with in the interior of Sierra I.eone and in the regions of the Upper Niger, perhaps also in Kano and Bornu. It is found in Abyssinia and Southern Somaliland ; in Uganda as an imported animal ; in Aiikole, and on most of the high plateaux between the Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika. South of Tanganyika it does not make its ajjpearance again until one has crossed the Zambezi. From the Central Zambezi down to Cape Colony it is the dominant type of ox where European breeds have not been introduced. It is also found in a form closely resembling the Ilima ox in Damaraland and Ovampoland and in ^- An ANKui.t Bull. BANTU NEGROES 025 Soufheni Angola, from which point this iy\)e of cattle penetrates eastwards into the southern basin of the Congo. Elsewhere in Africa the other breed 348. HIMA WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS: SPEAKS, HOWS, AKKOWS, QllVKKS, SHIELDS, women's GRASS APRONS, "MILK" BASKETS, fliOPPEKS of OX kept bv the natives is the humped zeliu. ahnost identical in appearance with that of India. Tlie two varieties or sub-species are curiously inter- calated. Thus the domestic cattle of Zululaud formerly belonged to the ()2() BANTU NEGROES liuini)ecl tyjte. vvliile the western Kaffirs and the Hottentots possessed the bio; lonif-horned ox. Hunn)e(l rattle in Africa are more characteristic of the low-lying, well-wooded regions, wliereas the long-horned, straight-backed cattle flourish best in grass-lands and on lofty plateaux. The third breed wliich is found in the Dark Continent is the ordinary Mauritanian ox of Nortli Africa, ne^•er seen south of the Sahara. This is the most common modern type in Egypt, and is a sub-species of ox nearly allied to Southern Em-opean breeds of cattle, of which the Jersey is a dwarfed example. In ancient Egypt we know fi'om the paintings and sculptures that all these three types — the ^lauritanian, the straight-backed and long-liorned, and the humped zebu — were present. Thirteen years ago the cattle jjlagiie, which devastated so much of East Central Africa, swept through Ankole and carried off three-fourths of the cattle. The Bahima, who then depended almost exclusively on their cattle for food, perished from starvation in great numbers, and the following year still more of them died from a visitation of smallpox, which proved very fatal to them in their weakened condition. Lieutenant Mundy states that from the information given to him by intelligent Bahima, he believes the Hima population and their stock of cattle at the present da}' to be not more than a third of what they were fourteen years ago. The Bahima live in collections of ten to twenty houses inside a strong fence liuilt of thorn bushes or eu])horbia. These hedges have two or three entrances, which are blocked up at night by logs or thorn branches. The young calves usually sleep inside the houses, and when very young are kept within the people's dwellings all through the day. When the men who are guarding the cattle take them to the water in the evening, they (as already stated) plaster their faces and bodies with white clay, and at the same time stiffen their hair with mud into separate lum})S. This mud is left on the head for days, until it gradually falls off in dust. The unmarried men sleep to the number of ten or twelve in one house. A chief, or a man of any wealth or impcn'tance, always has a number of young boys attached to his household. It is the universal custom for the boys of poor people, when they reach the age of eight or nine, to leave theh parents and attach themselves to the following of some chief or rich man. who feeds and clothes them in return for their sernces. They sleep in tlie chiefs house or houses, separated from the bed of the principal occupant h\ a screen. The ordinary INIuhima hut is an untidy affair, round in shape, constructed of sticks and wattle, with a loosely thatched roof and one or two low doorways. Some of the chiefs* houses are plastered with mud on the outside of the wattle franrework, and are lined inside with closelv arranged sticks or reeds, which from BANTU NEGROES 027 the smoke of the fire soon assume a glossy dark hrowii tint. Tlie clav covering of a chiefs house is sometimes extended under the verandah into clay settles. The clay chosen is usually of a dark or bluish colour, and is decorated by bold designs in white kaolin. These designs are usually cut into the black mud and painted witli the white clay. T\\e floor of the chief's house is covered with clean grass. The bed is merelv a raised block of hard mud, which is shut off from tlie rest of the house l)y a screen of reeds. A chiefs house is always placed inside a cattle 349. HIMA ANIJ IKO iSPEAKS fence, and is generally surrounded in addition by a roughly built enclosure of reeds similar, but much inferior, to the •' bisikati " of Tganda. The spear is the principal weapon of the Muhima. The type peculiar to this race, and whicli is found everywhere in East Central Africa where they or their influence have penetrated, has a long wooden sliaft and a spear-head with hvo blood-courses on either side of the central rib. In this point they differ from the spears of the Bairo, which are of much ruder construction, with a depression in the middle on one side which answers to a ridge down the middle on the other side. The aecomi)anying (528 BANTU NEGROES l»liotogra})li gives exain])les of I lima sja'ars mixed with a few of the ruder weapons of the I'airo. The bow is about four feet long, with a string made of the gut of eattle, antehjpes, or sheep. The arrows are about eighteen inches h>ng, with barbed heads, but as a rule not poisoned. The quiver in which the arrows are kept is sometimes a very artistic piece of workmanship. It is made of hard white w^ood, like a long tube with wooden caps at each end, and is slung by a string across the shoulders. The white wood is burnt into by red-hot irons, and in this kind of pokerwork striking designs of black cover the white wood. Inside the quiver a fire-stick is usually kept, as well as a selection of arrows. The shield of Ankole proper and some of the surrounding countries is small, very convex, made of tiglit basketwork, and with a large central boss of wood, or in some cases of iron. Along the eastern coast-lands of Lake Albert Edward tlie shield, ])resuniably of the Bairo, is larger, not quite so convex, and is made of hippopotamus liide. Both shields are oval in sha])e. As regards implements rather than weapons, the Eahima use a small sickle (illustrated in the photograph of weapons) and a liroad knife-blade fitted on to the end of a long [)ole with wliich they can chop at the blanches of trees. As they never by any chance till the ground, they have no hoes or agricultural implements. Occasionally long knives are carried in rather pretty basketwork sheathes. In many of the Hima villages of Ankole there are smithies, generally separated from the rest of the villatje ])V a low fence. Ironstone contaiuiuLT ii'on ore is broken into 350. JII.MA U'LIVKK AMI AKKOW; BANTU NEGROES 021) small pieces and mixed with charcoal. The forging fmnace is l)lo\vn bv bellows, which are somewliat dift'erent from those used bv surrounding neffro tribes. There is a long mouthpiece of baked clay or of drilled stone wliich goes into the char- coal fire. Into the broad outer end of this is in- serted a long pipe, whicli is somewhat ingeniously made of corn-stalks or reeds, tied tightly by parallel liands into a strong pipe. This is made air-tight by re- peated coatings of wet clay or kaolin. To the further end of this tube is fitted, not the bellows made of goatskin or banana leaves in general use amongst the Negroes, but a pot of baked clay, one side of which is furnished with a long spout, into which is fitted a long cylinder of reeds. A skin is stretched o\ev the top of the pot, and in the centre of this skin is fastened an upright stick. The man who blows the bellows squats on the ground and works the stick and the skin u}) and down. A great deal of beauti- ful hasketwork is done by the Bahima. Some of this work is woven so fine as to be able to contain milk without leakage. Milk is also ke})t in wooden vessels hollowed out from the solid block, and also in finely sha})ed clay vessels usually coloured black 351. HI MA POT I\ l![..\(KKNi:i) CI. AY iVM) BANTU NEGROES with ])luiiibago, and canic^d in a })retty basketwork cover. Beer or 1 anana wine is usually carried in tfourds. The cows are generally milked into n long wooden funnel, from which the milk is poured into one of the wooden vessels for storage. The milk vessels are also surrounded sometimes by a neat netting of string, by means of whicli they can be susj (ended on a rafter. I give a photograph here of a beautiful piece of pottery made by the Bahima in Ankole, with a basketwork stopper. The clay has been blackened with plumbago, and attains a beautiful shiny gloss. It has been deeply incised with a graceful pattern. A certain amount of tobacco is smoked, as well as what is taken by the men as .snuff. The women appear to smoke a great deal, especially when old. The pipes, however, are often of rude manufacture, with rough clay bowls. I did not notice among tl;e-m the handsomely worked pipes made in Uganda. As musical instruments the Bahima use flutes (similar to those of Uganda), lyres, and drums. Oreat importance is attached to the drums. In the modern Kingdom of Ankole there are three special drums considered to be hundreds of years old, and invested with fetishistic properties. The drum, in fact, is often taken as the symbol of sovereign power. In Ankole proper the big drum is called " Bugendanwe." A smaller drum placed alongside it is styled its wife, and a yet smaller one its prime minister. Attached to the big drum is an ornamental >tafif or walking-stick and a bundle of " medicine " composed of dry herbs, peculiarly shaped sticks, and the skins of two genets stuffed with grass. These drums are made like those of Uganda — a great hollowed block of whitish wood which tapers towards the base, and over the mouth of which a piece of ox skin has been strained. But the wooden body of the drum in these special cases is carved with patterns, and is further ornamented by the symmetrical cords of twisted hide which hold the skin firmly in po-ition over the mouth of the drum. The Bahima are perhaps a more moral people than the surrounding negi'oes, and there is generally chastity amongst the young women before marriage. They are domineering in attitude towards subject negro races, and are a very proud people, but are generally courteous towards Europeans, with whom they claim a certain kinship in origin. They are usually very honest and truthful. Unfortunately, when of nearly pure Ilima blood they tend to be indolent, a feeling of pride and national superiority preventing them fro:n indulging in much manual labour. The men of Hima blood are born gentlemen, and one is so struck with their handsome bearing and charming manners as to desire ardently that this fine race may not come to extinction. Of this there is great danger, as the women of pure Hima blood are not very fertile, and the men augment BANTU NEGROES 631 tlieir liouseholds with wives or concubines from the negro tribes around them. Thus the Hima race is gradually becoming absorbed by the prolific negroes, and simply remains lanother instance of the attempts (there have been many similar unconscious efforts in the far-distant past) of the Caucasian species through its Hamitic or Libyan branches to modify :52 BANTU NEGROES felt (luriiit;- iiiclcinent weather, when rain is falling in alnindance and the air is eool and dani]). It is tlionglit bv the Bahima that the sj)irits are })ropitiated it" fetish houses are erected for their frequentation. It is believed bv most of them that the food placed on the clay floors of these little dwellings is really consumed by the spirits, though, as a matter of fact, it is cai-ried off liy rats and other scavengers. Apart I'roiu all this, however, the Bahima have a profound belief in witchcraft, and until two years ago the country of Ankole was continually agitated by the "'smelling out" of witches and wizards and their execution. A prominent chief in Ankole had even to be removed by the present writer from that country and sent into exile on the east shore of the lake because he was continually accusing harmless individuals of witchcraft practices and having them executed. He himself was a great priest of the Bachwezi. There are, in fact, many fetish men or priests amongst the Bahima who, besides carrying on the worship of the spirits and indulging in witchcraft on their own account, also act as doctors or " medicine men." They collect a certain kind of grass, of which they make hay. This hay is put into a jar of mead or banana wine, or beer made from sorghum, and left for twenty-four hours in one of the many fetish huts. The liquor is- afterwards removed and drunk as a medicine. The fetish men also cut little oval-shaped pieces or cubes of wood, and, after muttering an incanta- tion over them, sell them to persons who are ill or who are troubled by bad dreams, to be worn round the neck as a charm. Nearly every adult Hima in Ankole wears one or more of these diamond or cube-shaped pieces of wood hung from the neck, generally on a ring made from the tendons of an elephant. As regards marriarje, this ceremony is usually conducted as follows : The young INIuhima who wants to marry must first obtain the permission of his tribal chief or of the head-man whom he follows. His father, or in some cases his chief, then provides about ten cattle, and these are delivered over to the father of the girl, whose consent has generally been obtained before the present is made. The bridegroom then builds a house and decorates the exterior with black and white clay. When the bouse is finished, the bride's father takes her there, and at the same time ])rings back three out of the ten head of cattle. A marriage feast at the bridegroom's house follows the arrival of the bride. The Bahima do not, as a rule, bury their dead, but tie the corpse to a branch and expose it in the grass at some distance from the village to be eaten by hyaaias. Chiefs, lujwever, are buried in the ground at the bottom of the huts in which then' li\ed. The J5ahima of Ankole are, as I have already stated, divided into lav ijrinc'qjal clans and into at least three important minor states, one ()8i. EANTU NEGROES ot wliicli is Aiikolo ])i-()|)('r and llic others K'usumhufU and Kvara. Eut the king or pfincipal chief of the relatively small district of Ankole has for a century or more genendly ruled over not only what is the present administrative District of Ankole, but portions of Toro to the north and .^Ipc'iroro to the south-west. The present king of Ankole, like the sovereigns ol Toro, l^nyoro, and Uganda, though he claims pm-e Hima descent, is quite a negro in features. He is, for instance, a strong contrast in this 333. A .MAN (M- JdKl respect to his present prime minister, who might very well pass for a Berber of Southern Tunis. The royal families of the countries just mentioned no doubt had their origin in Gala founders of the dynasty, but each one of the long line of kings has kept a large harim of negro concubines, and very often the concubine has given birth to sons where the beautiful Hima consort has proved childless. However that may be, it is a curious fact that in all these countries which possess an aristocracy so strongly resembling Galas, Abyssinians, and Egyptians in their features and the BANTU NEGROES 635 colour of their skins, the roval family, though often good-looking, is nevertheless quite negro in aijpearanee. It is, however, the Ilima element which seems to have given rise to the careful ceremonial and rigid eti(juette of the negro courts, and to have instituted a hierarchy of court officials resembling in the quaintest of parallels what grew up in Europe during the Middle Ages. The principal office, as in Uganda, is that of the Katikiro, or first minister. Then comes the Kasegara, or steward of the roval household ; the Omolinzi, or controller of the king's harim ; the ^Nlwobisi wamarwa, the king's cup-bearer or provider of fermented drink ; the ]\Iuchumbi wanyama, or meat-cook; the Mugaragwa, who carries the king's chair or stool ; the Mugema wa taba, keeper of the king's pipes and tobacco (who is always required to light the royal pipe) ; the Mukumurizi, or door-keeper ; the Mutuma, or messenger ; the JNIugurusi, or j)rovider of firewood; the Omutezi, or drummer; the Omutezi wa nanga, or harpist; and the Omutezi wa mbanda, or flute-player. CHAPTER XM BANTU NEGBOES—Ccont'niurdj (2) The BA(iAxi)A and Basoga THE Kingdom of Uganda is tlie most impoi'tant province fiJoliticallyj in the Protectorate, and perha})s one of the best organised and most civilised of African kingdonrs at the present day. In liict, })utting aside the empires of Abyssinia and Morocco fas entirely independent states ranking with other world Powers). Uganda wonld take a liigh place among those purely Negro kingdoms which retain any degree of national rale. and would compare favourably in importance with Sokoto, AVadai. Lunda, or Barotse. It is difficult to fix on a physical type of Negro })eculiarly characteristic of Uganda, there being no such thing; but Uganda civilisation, arts, and crafts have a certain distinct cacliet of their own, not to be altocrether explained bv the ancient introduction of an Ilamitic civilisation, though this undoubtedly was the main stimulus which caused a land of Pygmies and West African Negroes to emerge into the semi- civilised, refined, and. in some respects, artistic people who have risen to such prominence in the ])olitics of Central Africa under that long line of astute kings of whom ]\iutesa was a striking example. The present population of Uganda is comjjosed of three main elements. The country und<5ubte:lly was first inhabited by people of the Pygmy- Prognathous tvpe similar to those already described in connection with the Congo Forest. To the present day in the great forest of Kiagwe, whicli covers a large pro[)ortion of >South-Eastern Uganda, near the Ripon Falls, there are individuals of stunted growth. 1:)road, flat noses, and long u])per lips, wlio might very well l)e elasstnl as Congo Pygmies. Tlie next element to be described is that of the AVest African Negro tyi)e. which constitutes the bulk of the population at the present time, and which, no doubt, invaded Uganda in succession to tlie original Pygmy-Prognathous settlers when the land was mostly co\(n-ed with great forests. I call this element "West African." because many of the Baganda are strikingly like that rather pronounced form of Negro characteristic of the west coast of Africa. 'J'lif West African Negro ty})e is undoubtedly the foundation of ~ 354. A MUG AX DA (538 BANTU XEGEOES the JjiUitu. tliougli the JJantu race — if there lie any such racial distinction — is probablv composed of a West African stock that has been modified and sHL,ditlv improved (in some case^j 1)V ancient Hamitic intermixture. Ka'Tanda of tlie West African kind are talh loose-limbed, muscular people, and this tvpe is well re})resented by the present Katikiro. or prime mini>ter. ^len of this description are often met with over six feet in heitrht, though somewhat clumsily built, and entirely lacking the grace and suppleness of the Hima. The third element in the composition of this population is the Gala lierdsman from the north and north-east. Portions of the modern Kingdom of Uganda belonged to Unyoro and to an Hamitic aristocracy down to within four years ago ; but, according to tradition, nearly all the present Kingdom of Uganda, except some districts actually bordering the Victoria Xyanza,* were at one time part of the Hima kingdoms founded in Ankole, Toro, and Unyoro. Never- thele;sg^ it would seem as though the districts bordering on the lake shore, whicli are characterised by a good deal of marsh and very rich forest, and are consequently somewhat unhealthy to the European and the Hamite, were never occupied by the Bahima. Eepresentatives of this race, however, have affected tlie physical aspect of the people of Uganda by their introduction into tlie country as herdsmen, and by the fact that it has been the constant practice of kings and chiefs to obtain beautiful Hima girls as their wives or concubines. Consequently, a few pure- blooded Bahima and a great many half-castes between the Hima and the Negro are to be met with at the present day in Uganda, while not a few individuals amongst the more or less pure negroes bear testimony in their greater refinement of features to the intermingling of the (iala with the Muganda. Measareinents of a few Baganda are given in the tables of anthropo- metrical observations. The average of twenty measurements of men and twenty of women taken by ]Mr. J. F. Cunningham give the average man's height as 5 feet 4^ inches ; chest measurement, 33^ inches ; length of foot, 10 inches; measurement round the neck. 13^ inches- and round the nates. '65h inches. The average height of the women was 5 feet 1:^ inches. Round the chest they measured 32^ inches. The length of the foot was 9;^ inches ; the measm-ement round the neck, 11 5: inches; and round the nates, 35 inches. The expression of the features in the negro Baganda is mild and agreeable. A good deal of hair grows on the men's faces, especially in the form of whiskers. The physiognomy of the average Muganda is thoroughly negro, and the skin is usually \ery lilack, except where there has been distinct intermixture * The Sese Archiitelago and the Bukerebe Islands were both at one time under Hima domination. 355- A MUGAXDA CIO BANTU NEGROES with the ]jahima. In the royal family of I'^^aiida the features are quite neu^ro (though in a pleasant foim). and the skin is a peculiar golden brown. The hair of the head, if allowed to grow, becomes very thick, but it is usually ctit sliort. There is a moderate growth of hair on the body, much the same as in the West African Negroes. The I^aganda never circumcise unless they are converted to ^Nluhamma- danism. Jjefore the advent of Islam, the teaching of which began to penetrate the country about fortv years ago, there were, of course, no circumcised men amongst the Baganda. I'hey had, indeed, a great dislike to this rite ; and it was possibly the imposition of circumcision which in the earlier days made .Muhammadanism so un})()pular. and wliich to a great extent has kept it from spreading at the present day. Likewise the Baganda neither knock out their front teeth nor sharpen them to points, as is done by the forest tril)es. the Banyoro. and the Nilotic 2Segroes ; nor do they drill or mutilate the ears, or cicatrise the body with raised scars. It would almost seem as though the Baganda had lost much of their original vigour as a race through the effects of former debauchery and the appalling ravages caused among them by syphilis. It is difficult to over- estimate the damage done by this last disease. The French Bishop. Monseigneur Streicher. writing to the author of this hook, describes this disease as '• une jjlaie desastreuse pour le jjays.'' Dr. Cook, of tlie Church JMissionary [Society, in one of his reports to the Bishop of Uganda in 1901. remarked. •• In Uganda syphilis is universal." .So ft\r as can be ascertained, this plague did not exist in the country until communications were opened up with the Zanzibar coast-lands and with the Sudan provinces of Egvpt between 1850 and 18^iO. It would be rash to say that the malady was unknown to the country before these dates, but it was certainly introduced in a new and ravaging form bv the Arabs and Nubians. Now it is becoming- somewhat more benign, but is appearing in a congenital form amongst the children. Mothers do not recognise this malady when it breaks out in their offspring, but attribute it to the results of their having eaten salt during pregnancy. If the child dies of this disease, the mother is beaten, as it is taken to be her fault. Monseigneur Streicher. who knows intimately the Banyoro and Baganda. informs me that although this same terrible disease is equally present in Unyoro. it does not appear among the children. The same authority lias drawn the present writer's attention repeatedly to the stationary character of the Baganda populatiim at the present day. The Kingdom of Uganda in the time of Mutesa. though then of smaller extent politically than at the present day. pvol)ably numbered 4.000.000 people. In 1901 I was not able to e>timate the j.opulation at much over 1,000,000. Thi> decrease is partly due to the appalling bloodshed and massacres which went on 1ietween 18()0 and 1898 and were caustMi bv the 356- liAUANDA SOI.UIEHS OF THE K1M.'.> A) i;U AN HU'l.E.S C>12 BANTU NEGROES wars, raids, and civil wars wliic-li took jtlaci' midci' the kings Mutcsa. Kiwtnva, Kaicina. and .Mwaiiga. and which resulted froin the counter-raids of Unyoro. I5ut another cause seems to have lieen the exhaustion of men and women l)v premature debauchery. From some cause or another the women of Uganda have ])ecome very poor breeders. If a woman has more than one child she is looked upon as quite remarkable, and is given a special honorific title. In former days, the Baganda women being so frequently barren, it was the custom of the men. at any rate amongst the chiefs and aristocracy, to raid the neighbouring countries of Unyoro, Toro, and Busoga for wives, or to obtain large numbers of women by the slave trade. Since this means of i-ecruiting for the marriage market has been put a stop to, e\en though at the same time wars and massacres have come to an end, the present p)opulation remains in a rather stationary condition. If the Baganda are to be saved from dying out as a race — and I cannot but believe and hope they will — it will be entirely through the introduction of Christianity and the teaching of the missionaries, both Koman and Anglican. The introduction of monogamy as a universally recognised principle now amongst all people who desire to conform to mission teaching may be the salvation of Uganda, strange to say. The people, through this teaching, are now becoming ashamed of marrying girls who have led a bad life before marriage. The appreciation of female chastity is distinctly rising, while at the same time young men find debauchery no longer fashionable, and endeavour to marry early and become the fathers of families. If ever a race needed a Puritan revival to save it from extinction, it is the Baganda, and if ever Christian missions did positi\e and unqualified good among a Negro race, this good has been accomplished in Uganda, where their teaching has turned the current of the more intelligent people's thoughts towards the physical advantages of chastity. The other disedses to which this people are subject are numerous. They suffer from malarial fexer, but not to the same extent as Europeans. It is a mistake to suppose that they are immune from h;emoglobinuric, or blackwater fever. They do enjoy, apparently, immunity from this disease luithin their oivn hind, but if a Muganda (joes (for instance) to the Congo Forest, or to the south shore of the Victoria Xyanza, he is as likely as any European to get hlackwater fever and die of it. Small- pox is a constantly recurring plague which ravages this country, as it does most parts of tropical Africa. The people also sutfer from a mild form of chicken-pox and from mumps. Dysentery is not often met with amongst the natives of Uganda itself, but the Baganda are [larticularly subject to this disease if they quit their own country and travel to tiation. which soon render it impossible for the sufferer to carry on any of hi- usual duties. In its later stages he heci.nies eontinually soinnoh'ut, and ultimately unconscious. The disease comes on in a slow and insidious mmner. and may last for two or even three years. The result seems to be invariably fatal, no Authentic ca-e of recovery from the disease having yet been published (I quote from ])r. A. \\. Cook). In 1901 201) persons on the Island of Ijuvnma died of this disease, which has now extended its ravages as far east as the Nandi Plateau. The Baganda fear the sleeping sickness a greal deal more than smallpox. The disease ap[;ears to be caused by an organic alteration in the structure of the brain, and it is accompanied in nearly every case by the presence of a peculiar and active little worm in the blood known as Filarln perstans. Enteric, cholera, scarlet fever, diphtheria are up to the i)resent moment unknown to the Baganda, nor do they apparently suffer from nervous diseases. Epilepsy is rare, and insanity still more uncommon. Facial paralysis sometimes occurs as a sequela of malarial fever. Diseases of the liver are rare. Dyspepsia and various affections of the digestive organs are common owing to the ''gross and fflthy habits of the natives" (Dr. E. U. Moffat)— that is to say, the natives are so careless in the way in which they give full rein to their ai)petite for large quantities of food that, even with their strong digestions, they suffer from dyspepsia and diarrhoea. All things considered, it must be agreed that the Baganda have certainly their share of this world's troubles. They live in a beautiful and exceedingly fertile country, which is. however, not healthy for either Europeans or natives. In a measure they have become inured to its special type of malarial fever, though they suffer almost as much from fever as do Europeans if they proceed to another part of tropical Africa. There is, of course, an enormous death-rate among the children, who are very badly looked after by their mothers. One point must be stated emphatically in favour of the Baganda. They are one of the few Negro races who attempt anything like sanitary measures to keep their surroundings free from filth. They are often dirty in their persons, and sufficiently careless about their food and drinking water to justify Dr. Moffat's allusion to their *' gross and filthy habits"; but they attempt as a rule to keep their houses clean, and the surroundings of their houses very clean. Before ever the influence of European civilisation was felt they had (unlike all the surrounding tribes) instituted the plan of the construction and use of jirivies for pur[)oses of defecation. Nearly everywliere else where I have travelled in Africa, with the exception, perhaps, of Muhammadan Africa per extremities, so that the shape of the door is a very long o\'al. The interior of a chief's house has the general level of the floor raised at least a foot above the ground by a hard structure of clay smeared over with mud and cow-dung, so that it is absolutely smooth, and in some })laces is shiny and black with the polish of feet going to and fro. Other daises often rise in steps above the level of the floor. The roof is relativelv verv hiifh in the BANTU NEGROES O.")! centre. It is conijjosed of a vast framework of paliu-froiid stems or flexil)le sticks lined inside with closely tied canework. Tliis framework of the roof really extends uninterruptedly to tlie i^round. and round the edge of the hut and its narrow verandah, if it has one. It is strengthened from the ground upwards by a circle of poles which are placed })erpendicularly in the ground all round the periphery of the house, and which fit into the roof just where it begins to slo])e upwards towards the a]iex. The roof is supported in the interior by tall, straight poles mad<' of the stems of the wild date palm. In the fore part of the hut. near the main door, at about an ecpial distance between the projection ovei' the jiorch and the apex of the roof, there is a screen or partition wall with su})[)orts in the centre made of these date-palm columns going right u[) to the roof. In all Uganda buildings of the old ty2)e (I am obliged to })ut in this pi'oviso, because the Kaganda are changing their customs so rapidly, and many of them are now building houses after the European style in bricks) the palm-trunk column is an ever-present and picturesque feature. The dwellings of kings and chiefs, churches, mosques, and schools are all distinguished by this forest of smooth, straight, slender palm-trunks. Their use enables the jNIuganda of the better class to give his roof a high pitch and his dwelling a stateliness which makes it something far superior to the ordinary African hut, 1 10 we ver extensive may be the ramifica- tions of these low- pitclied dwellings. Of course the houses of the peasantry are greatly inferior in appearance to those of the gentle-folk, and many of them at a distance look like untidy haycocks. The thatch of the better class of dw'ellings is in itself a special feature of Uganda and such countries to the west as follow Uganda fashions. The thatch is extremely thick, perluips as much as a foot in density. It is of fine long grass, and all over the front of the house, 361. AN U(;ANI)A CKOWI) C52 BANTU NEGROES over the ])t)rcli and a jiortion of the veraii(hih, the grass is shaved off witli sharp knives to a smooth edge. This gives the house a very neat aspect, and is a great improvement on the untidy, weeping straws which usually terminate an African's thatch. The interior of the house and tlie outer walls of the porch and front verandah are most neatly covered with canework. This is made of the long stalks of the elephant grass packed closely together in an upright position, and bound by transverse 362. THE .SPEC I. \ I BAG AN DA GUESTS ON THE LATE yLEEN :s BIKTHDAY bands of bast. This canework is almost a speciality of the Baganda, and with it they clothe unsightly poles, which then become glistening columns of pale gold. Doors are even made of this canework. The apex of the roof is usually finished ofif by a cap composed of several flounces of thatch, one on top of the other. A large house may contain, besides the central fireplace (generally a raised dais of hard clay on which stand the three liig round stones which comi)ose tlie African's grate), from one to five slee})ing berths, usually BANTU NEGROES 653 beds of raised clav partially surrounded by screens. It has been already explained that a ])artition of pahn-trunks rising to the ceiling cuts ofiF 363. AX LCANHA HUISK the front part of the hut into a sort of semi-circular hall, and helps to ensure a certain amount of privacy for the interior. Behind the broad opening in this palm-trunk partition is placed a screen of matting, which enables people to pass to the right or left of the interior of the hut. but 654. BANTU NEGROES 364. chief's house, UGANDA y)revent.s any one gazing direct from the doorway on the inmates. Curiously enough, in many of the houses, even of the better class, there is a partition on the left of the interior from the principal entrance which serves as an enclosure for cattle, one or more milch cows being kept there with their calves. Some of these cows are extremely tame, and walk in and out of the houses with great care and deftness, never upsetting or injuring the frail screens through which they have to pass. It may be sup})Osed that these tame cows introduce a certain amount of dirt and smell into the house; but as regards cleanly liabits tliey seem to be as well trained as a domestic dog or cat. At tlie back of tlie |iriiici|)al (Iwclliiii^-house there are smaller and M/y^'K'^': ♦-re mCy BANTU NEGROES less; iicatlv built huts which serve a.s cooking places, and sometimes as separate dwellings fur su])ernunierary women or children, and attached to everv estabiishiueiit is a ])ii\v. In the courtyard which contains the a^^p^g;;t ^,. ^z;^ mmBSBSBmmmsmmmmm 366. FRAMEWORK OF AN UGANDA HOUSE principal dwelling there may still be seen a small fetish hut near the house and close to the gateway leading into the courtyard. Everv Uganda house of importance has attached to it a series of neatly kept courtyards surrounded by tall fences of plaited reeds. In visiting a chief one may pass through four or five of these empty courtyards, in which followers of the chief stand or squat under shady trees. Any really big chief or the king of Uganda would liave in one of these courtyards a band of music, a number of men with drums, fifes, and horn trumpets, who would greet the arrival of distinguished strangers bv striking up some melody. Or a couple of these may be seated on the ground playing tunes on the " aniadinda."' a xylophone which will be described later among the musical instruments of Uijanda. These court- yards are called in the native language "kisikati"' fin the plural •• bisikati")- The reed fencing that surrounds them is usually of the pattei-n given in the accompanying illustration, and this style of fence will follow roadways in towns or settlements for miles, enclosing the 2)lant;itions and settlements of well-to-do individuals. These fences, behind which rise handsome shade-trees or bright green bananas, give a singularly civilised aspect to the broad roads which traverse townships. The Uganda toivn is a series of villa residences surrounded by luxuriant gardens. Occasionally there is an o})en square formed by the meeting of two broad roadways, and this may be the site of a market or a place of reunion for the ])eople. Narrow })atlis may circulate between the huts ^/eirs-tcon St etc o n a. C ^/ez^-a.Ct.cn £nr.»„c< Plan of C ook-koiise. Plan oj Divellineo[)le on horseback. The causeway is usually made by driving poles into the marsh and building along these two rows of piles a coarse basket work of withes and canes. Between these walls of basket- work are thrown down a quantity of papyrus stalks and branches of trees. Poles are fastened at short intervals above this groundwork of indiscriminate vegetation, and keep the opposite walls of basketwork from falling in. An immense (juantity of mud and sand is then thrown down along the cause- way, and gradually liuilt u}) to a high, hard i-oad some six feet above the surface of the marsh. At intervals tunnels are make in the basket- work as rough drains through which the slowh^ percolating water of these choked rivers may find its way. The weakness of this plan seems to lie in the perishable nature of the foundations. The immense quantity of })ai)yrus leaves and branches which are thrown down at the bottom of the causeway rot l:)y degrees and shrink in ^•olume. This causes holes to form in between the poles. At the same time, one has only to travel in countries like Uganda outside the limits of Uganda civilisation to realise what a boon these dry roads are across the interminable marshes. V/hen travelling in the northern part of Ankole I was frequently stopped for 368. IXTEKIOK OF A NATIVE CHURCH, ICANHA EANTU NEGllOES 659 days by tlie necessity of cutting a road tlirough the marsh and then fining it in with a sufficient amount of piled-up stalks and branches to enable my caravan to traverse it without becoming hojx'lesslv stuck in the bog. The Uganda canoe, like the Uganda house and road, is a thing peculiar to Uganda. The germ of the idea possiljly may be seen in the tub-like vessels which ply on all parts of tlie Albert Edward, and which, like the canoes of the J:)aganda, are made of boards sewn together with thongs. The foundations of the boat consist of a keel made from the long, slender stem of a tree, which may b(^ as mucli as fifty feet long. The keel is straightened and slightly war^sed, so that it })resents a convex aspect to the water. This long tree-trunk is a semi-circular hollow, the interior having been burnt out with fire, aided by the chipping of axes, and it is of sufficient girth to form by its breadth the bottom of the canoe. The j)row end of the keel projects for a considerable distance out of the water, sloping upwards, as the Baganda generally load more Iieavily the after part of the canoe. Along the rim of the hollow keel the first long plank of the canoe side is fixed at an angle of perhaps twenty degrees. Its AN DA CANOE 660 BANTU NEGROES bottom e(\i:!;v is tii'inly seiun to tlic u[)])ei- rim of the keel ])y fine wattles, made generally of tlie Hexilile rind of the midril)s of the rapliia ]mlm. Innumerable holes ai'e pierced in the lower edge of the board and the upper rim of the keel with a led-hot spike of iron. A small jjair of iron pincers draws the thin wattle through these holes, and in this way the board which is to form the tirst plank of the canoe sides is firmly fixed to the edge of the keel. A second and broader board is again sewn to the upper edge of the tirst one. When this has been repeated on both sides, the canoe is made, but it is rendered firmer and more stable by the insertion of the transverse poles w^hich serve as seats and stays. The prow and tlie stern are finished off by another hollowed half-cylinder of wood stitched to the ends of the planks. The prow end of the keel is also strengthened by a long bent pole with a liackward twist being 370. IIODEL OF AX UGANDA CANOE securely fastened to the keel. The top of this prow is generally ornamented by a pair of horns, and it is steadied by a stout rope being carried tightly from the uppermost point of the prow to the nose or beak of the canoe. Along this string hangs a fringe of banana filaments or bunches of grass. The joins in the planks and between the lower planks and the keel are generally covered by narrow rods on both sides, over which the bast which makes the stitches is tightly tied. Finally, the outside of the canoe is given a coat of grease to stop up chinks and holes, and is further smeared with red clay both inside and out, so that the canoe is sometimes almost the colour of vermilion. It is curious that with all these ingenious notions about boat-building, the Baganda have never conceived the idea of using sails, and even now, when they are familiar with Arab daus on the lake and European sailing vessels, they still })refer to propel their canoes entirely by paddles. The paddle, unlike so many I'ganda implements, is not particularly artistic in BANTU NEGROES (U;i shape or design, nor has it tliat charming ornament characteristic of tlie canoe padcUes of Kenin. The paddles are stout and strong, with a heart- or si)ade-shaped l)lade, about three to four feet in length, and cut out of a solid piece of wood. Like the canoe, they are generally smeared witii fat and red clay. All these canoes and })lanks are hevm. No such thing as a saw exists anywhere in Negro Africa, unless where introduced by Europeans. Planks are often obtained by splitting tree-trunks l)v means of wedges, and adzing down the thick layers of wood to the retpiiivd thinness. The Kaganda certainly make artistic jioller//. Their country [)r(nides them with many different kinds of clay. Tlie red soil makes the large red earthenware, the kaolin gives them a white clay, and a black soil provides them with a dark bluish clay, a substance much fav(Mired for making certain articles. This black pottery is further beautified by a plumbago glaze wdiich is made from the graphite which occurs so frequently in the rocks of Uganda. \'ery handsome cups, vases, and milk-pots made with tliese black clays may be seen in the British ]Museum among the collections made by my expedition. They show particular taste and variety in the construction of p)ipe bowls. These are decorated with bold patterns in black and white or red and l)lack. In one kind of tobacco I'ipe there is a simple bowl which is fastened on to the pipe stem, and which contains the tobacco. On this is laid a second and larger bowl which fits tightly over the tobacco. It is perforated at the top, and contains live embers from the fire. This second and removable bowl is fitted with a small handle so that it can be easily detached. The Baganda carpenters now make chairs after the European model — in fact, a curious relic of the Speke and Grant expedition remained in the perpetuated camp stools. These useful articles were much admired by the Baganda, and after the departure of Speke and Grant two or three whicli were left behind in the possession of ^Nlutesa were imitated over and over again by the carpenters, and now no })erson of importance is without one of these portable seats. In like manner the Baganda soon began to imitate in their pottery the shapes of European cups, candlesticks, and goblets. In all their pottery they show such taste and artistic skill that it is quite possible they may eventually produce schools of pottery like those of Japan and China. Gourds are cut into many different shapes for drinking vessels, or are left in their natural form to serve as bottles and beer calabashes. The exterior of these gourds is also covered with ornament drawn by means of red-hot needles. ■ Another article in which they display ex(juisite taste is the long tube made simply of a hollowed cane with which they suck up banana beer (the object being to draw up only the liquid into the mouth, and not fragments of pulp or rind). This cane is enclosed in a covering of tightly plaited straw, m-i BANTU NEGROES many different colours lieiiig used in the })laiting, the result heing a really ex(juisite ])iec'e of workmanship. AVooden spoons of quaint shape are cut out of solid lilocks of < he same hard wood which is used for canoe planks, and ladles ai-e made of the same material. I have already described the making of bark-cloth and the wooden mallets (their sides scored with })arallel ridges or a criss-cross tile-lik(^ surface). Long wooden receptacles are also carved out of a solid block of wood, and are fitted with a rounded cap, stopper, or lid. The favourite white wood of which these things are 371. THE FIRST ATTEMPT OF UGANDA CARPENTERS TO MAIvE A WHEELED VEHICLE. CART BELONGS TO THE PRIME MINISTER, APOLO) made is decorated with all manner of })atterns In' means of red-hot iron implements. Basketivork is also much developed amongst these people, and is much the same as that already described as in use among the Bahima. though there is greater variety. Many of the plaited baskets of black and white straw are charming in design. It is diflficult to realise that the exquisite workmanship of some of these baskets comes from the hands of a coarse- looking negro, ^ome of their workmanship makes one imagine tliat a fine chainwork of bast or the stiff rind of palm niidrilis may have BANTU NEGROES 66a preceded goldsmiths' work in early days, and have been imitated by the goldsmiths subsequently. The Baganda will make necklaces composed of links of palm rind fitting one into the other, and resulting in a chainwork of extraordinary sui)pleness and finish. The Baganda make mats of three kinds ordinarily. In the Sese Islands bundles of papyrus stalks are roughly fastened with bast string. The result is a soft mat of great springiness and by no means of ugly appearance, as the dry papyrus fades to a pleasing grey-green. Elsewhere in Uganda very finely-plaited mats are made, tlie finest form of all being 372. UGANDA POTTERY (a MILKPOT AND TOBACCO PIPES) AND AN UGANDA FLUTE something like the Swahili '■ mikeka," which is varied l\v charming patterns of different coloured dyes. The material out of which most of the finer mats are made is the fibre deri\ed from the fronds of the Phwnix or raphia palms. The Baganda make excellent ropes, almost good enough for exportation ; also string of various degrees of fineness. The rope is generally made from the fibre of a species of Hibiscus, of Sanseviera, and of the bast of raphia and date palms. The string is made of various kinds of bast or hemp. Leather is dealt witli successfully in the making of sandals, and occasionally of caps, boxes, or the tops- of drums. Skins of wild beasts VOL. IT. 13 0(U BANTU NEGROES are beautifully dres^ied, being rendered perfectly soft and supple on the under-surface. The hide is continually scraped with a knife till all the fibres are loosened, and it is then rubbed with sand and fat. Lion and leopard skins, tlie skins of many antelopes, wild-cats, and monkeys, are dealt with in this manner. Especially noteworthy are the beautiful rugs that are made of the skin of the little blue-grey Cephalophus antelopes so common in Uganda. These are sewn together with exquisite fineness, so that the joints are scarcely observed. There is a good deal of ironicork carried on by the Baganda, who make hoes of the usual African shape, elegantly shaped knives, spear- heads, pincers or tongs, finger-rings, chains, axes and choppers, sickles, needles used in the making of bark-cloth and the plaiting of grass, and sometimes iron bells. The best iron (which apparently is haematite) comes from Busindi. As regards 'musical instruments, the Baganda are great flute-players. They make flutes out of the thick canes of sorghum, elephant grass, the Phragmites reed, sugar-cane, or bamboos, and play on them very agreeably. The shape of their drums may be seen from the accompanying illusM'ation. The type of the Uganda drum is met with all down Ea^t Central Africa from the Upper Nile regions to the Zambezi. A description of it was given in the la^t chapter in relation to the Bahima. Another kind of drum is also in use, especially in Buddu. This is more of a West African type. It is a hollow tree-trunk about three feet long, covered at the top with the skin of a Varaniis lizard. It is slung by a cord round the neck and one shoulder of the man, who plays it with his hands. There are also small hand drums, which are easily carried about. Then there is a kind of drum not often seen nowadays, of a singularly elegant shape, with a circular stand, from which rises a round column of wood about a foot in length. This widens out again at the top and forms a basin-shaped drum, over which is strained a skin neatly fastened by strings round the neck of the column. Another musical instrument which should be catalogued is of a kind which the coast natives call " kinanda." An example of this is well illustrated in the author's book on British Central Africa. A number of thin slips of iron or of resonant wood with the ends turning up are fastened to a small sounding-board j and are twanged with the fingers. Horns are made of long gourds open at both ends, the opening at the narrow end being very small. The blow-hole is cut into the gourd at about six inches from the small end, and the sound is modified by the player closing or opening the small end of the gourd with his finger. Other trumpets are made of the horns of Ira (/el a pit us antelopes, which are well suited for this purpose by their convolutions. tSmall horns of BANTU NEGROES cm this kind are, like the bottle gourds, o})en at both ends, with a large blow-hole cut near the jioint of the horn. The bigger horns of this kind have their large apertures partially closed with skin. In the eastern part of I'ganda and in Busoga pan-pipes are made out of the reeds that are suitable for flutes. The harp of Uganda is interesting because its identical form is re- peated iti the paintings of ancient Egypt, where the instrument must have had its origin, reaching I'gahda l^v way of the Nile, or by the roundabout route which ancient trade followed from Egypt to Somaliland and from Somaliland to Uganda. This type of Egyptian harp may also be noticed in tlie possession of the Sudan tribes along the Congo watershed and in the vicinity of the Niger, and I am not sm*e but what it does not turn up again in West Africa. The harp is constructed as follows: A curved, shallow basin of wood, in shape like the shell of a tortoise,* has a thin piece of sheep or antelo^je skin strained tightly over it. To one end of this basin or sounding-board is securely fixed a long, smooth, curved stem of wood, the skin being neatly fastened by some kind of glue all round the junction of this ^em of the harp with the sounding-board. There are usually eight strings, which are strung from the turning-pegs along the stem to the opposite end of the sounding-board, where they are securely fastened. The turning-pegs tune the strings to the requisite note. The Baganda have also a lyre of a kind very common in Negro Africa, and met with in many other countries besides Uganda. In this there is a sounding-board with a hole in it. composed of a shallow basin of hard wood, across which skin — very often a lizard's skin — has been tightly strained. This sounding-board is of an oval shape. Two smooth, * And tortoise-slioUs are often used for tliis purpose. 373. A BAXD OF MUSIC : DRUMS AND TRUMPETS 666 BANTU NEGROES well-polished sticks are fastened securely against each long side, with their points converging and crossing inside the sounding-board. Outside the skin cover they diverge to a considerable distance, and a cross piece of wood connects the two diverging ends. Yrom this cross piece eight strings usually are fastened to a bridge on the sounding-board. In the Sese Islands there is a slightly different form of lyre, in which the strings, after being gathered together and fastened on the sounding-board, radiate again to a frame of sticks which is fastened along the lower and short side of the sounding-board. Then there is the " amadiuda," which is well illustrated in the accompanying photograph. This xylophone is made of long, flattish segments of very hard wood, which are placed on the cylindrical trunks of bananas, with or without little cup-like sounding-boards. These flat slabs of wood are adzed to slenderness in the middle. They are usually kept in position when placed across the banana stalks by pegs being driven into tha soft banana trunk to prevent one slip of wood from touching another. They are beaten with little hard sticks, and give out a very melodious sound. The u'ea.jjons of the Baganda (apart from guns, which are now in the country by thousands and much used) are spears and shields. The Baganda have no throwing-spears, nor do they — unless it be among the children — use bows and arrows ; neither do they carry the swords or daggers used by the people in the eastern half of the Protectorate and in parts of the Congo Forest. Clubs were formerly in use in warfare in shape like the knobkerry. These were used until quite recently as one of the weapons of execution, men and women being frequently clubbed to death. The spear-head is not usually very large, and is often of the Hima type, with two blood-courses. Sometimes spears were used which were practically pikes fixed on long, stout wooden stems. The shield of Uganda is quite characteristic. Its shape is a pointed oval which has a bend right down the middle— that is to say, the two sides are bent back, leaving a central ridge. In the very middle of the shield a large pointed boss (answering to the handle at the back) is fixed, generally made of wood, but occasionally of iron. The foundation of the shield is sometimes wood with an interior cover of wickerwork. but orna- mental shields are occasionalh' made which are of wickerwork throughout. The handle of the shield is in the middle of the under-surface, just under the frontal boss. In Busoga and in Buddu the shield is bordered with the long hair of the colobus monkey. The shield is a very favourite ornament. Miniature shields are sometimes kept by the women as charms about their bed-places. In the Sese Islands the front of the shield is often rudely painted with white, red, and black clay. Although the G68 BAXTU NEGROES Baganda cairv no sword or dagger, properly speaking, they sometimes stick a small knife in the armlet worn on the upper left arm, and a knife witli a wooden or ivory handle is thrust into the waist-belt. In former days the Baganda hunted with a good deal of bravery the wild beasts of their country. They surrounded the elephant, the lion, and the leopard with hordes of spearmen. Nowadays, if allowed by the Administration, they would attack the same animals with rifles or muzzle- loading guns. The smaller antelopes are still caught in snares. There is the suspended harpoon, weighted with a huge block of wood, which is placed over the path that hippopotamuses may follow. Pitfalls of various sizes and a snare (made of a sapling bent downwards by a stout cord, to which is fastened a slipknot placed over a game track) are also in use. In the la^t-named device the slipknot is kept in position by pegs, which are easily disturbed. A passing beast puts his foot into the slipknot, the sapling springs back, the knot tightens, and the creature is found suspended by one leg. There are also ropes fastened across these game paths in such a way that if a beast jjresses against them a heavy lance enters his body. The Baganda are very adroit at catching young hippopotamuses, elephants, zebras, and antelopes ; but, strange to say, with all their intelligence they have hitherto shown themselves very poor hands at taming the wild creatures around them, and they have hitherto 'had absolutely no idea of domesticating beautiful birds and useful beasts. Those of the Baganda that dwell on the shores of the A'ictoria Nyanza, and still more the islanders on the lake, spend a good deal of their time in fishhifj. They use weir baskets, usually made of the stiff rind of the raphia palm fronds or of the stems of certain wiry creepers. A wide- mouthed basket with a short funnel stem passes into another basket with a long funnel, and this discharges again into a largeish chamber of the same wickerwork, which has a hole at the back through which the fish are taken out. These weirs are usually fixed in a horizontal position with stone weights, and are often placed across the neck of a small inlet or gulf. The natives sometimes fish with rod, line, and hook, and they lay out night lines with floats. Very often fish are driven towards weir baskets by the men wading out into the shallow water of the lake and carrying after them a rude kind of seine made of long strips of banana leaves fastened to a floating or to a sunken line. This seine is gradually drawn in towards the narrower [)art where the baskets are placed, and the fish are in this way driven into the baskets, or may be driven right on to the shore without the use of baskets at all. Fish is a good deal eaten by the Baganda. especially near the lake, but it is also roughly cured, smoked, and taken inland as an article of barter. Locusts are eaten in the usual way — by pulling off the wings and roasting the BANTU NEGROES 009 bodies. White ants* at the time wlien they begin to fly from the ant- hills are much liked. Here, as on Lake Nyasa, the kimgu fly (a minute species of gnat) rises in its millions from the lake waters, and is collected bv the Baganda on screens of matting, made into paste and eaten as an agreeable condiment. The Baganda keep as domestic animals the ox, goat, sheep, fowls, and dogs. Here and there may be an occasional cat, tlie de- scendant of breeds introduced by Em-opeans, or coming from the Egyptian establishments on the Nile. The cattle are usually of the humped zebu type. In the west and south long-horned Ankole oxen or half-breeds between these Gala cattle and the zebu are met with ; but as a rule the Gala oxen do not thrive in the damp, hot climate of Uganda. The cattle of a chief are always herded for him by a ^luhima, the Baganda not being very skilled in the care of cattle. Cattle-keeping, in- deed, has never taken the same hold over these eaters of the banana as has been the case witli the people of less dis- tinctly negro character to tlic east and to the west. Tht- Baganda nowadays appreciate milk more through the teach- ing of Europeans than from any original fondness for this liquid. The vessels in which the fresh milk is kept are generally filled with wood ash to cleanse them, and are smoked over a fire to keep them sweet. 'Ihis gives the milk a very smoky (though not a very disagreeable) flavour. It is doubtful whether they made butter or "ghi" on their own account before being taught to do sofifty years ago by Arab traders. Tlieir goats and sheep are of the ordinary type common to tropical Africa, the sheep, of course, * The flying termites enter considerably into Tganda and Unyoro folk-l'n-.. n-; a delicacy that is universally relished by men and b'jastf=. 375. AN UGANDA SHIELD 670 BANTU NEGROES being liain-. In the west of Uganda and in Toro the sliee}) grow to a very great size, and have enorniously fat tails. These very large sheep are often hornless.* They sometimes develop a mane down the front, like the domestic shee}) of Western Africa. In Busoga and Eastern Uganda a breed of domestic goat is often met with that is prized for its strange appearance. The hair grows extremely long over the back and sides and on the top of tlie head. It falls over the eyes like the hair of a Skye terrier. This seems to be a breed that came from the Nile regions. and it is one which reappears again to the west near the north end of Lake Albert. Fowls in Uganda belong to the usual small mongrel type so common throughout ]Segro Africa. Occasionally cocks and hens revert to the original colour of the wild breed, and are scarcely distinguishable from the jungle fowl of India. Eggs in large numbers are sold to Europeans. I cannot say that they are much eaten by the natives. I suppose as a general rule the hens would be allowed to hatch them if they were not in demand for the European market. "When a European is travelling througli Uganda a present of a thousand eggs from a chief is thought nothing of; though, of course, a large proportion of these eggs have been already sat on or are addled. Women are allowed by custom to eat eggs until they are married, or if they are living alone as widows ; but a woman who is married is not allowed to eat eggs an}' longer. The Baganda women are equally disallowed fowls as an article of food, and also mutton. They may, however, eat beef or veal. The dog used to be heard a great deal of in Uganda as a pet. Most persons who have read anything about African travel will recall the description given by Speke of king Mutesa and his pet dog. This pet dog of Mutesa appears to have been white, and Speke mentioned that a white dog, a spear, a shield, and a woman were the cognisance of Uganda. Although dogs are still very common throughout the country, they do not seem to be held in such special favour now by the natives. Sometimes they are used for purposes of hunting down antelopes. So far as I can see they mostly belong to the ordinary African pariah breed with reddish yellow hair and prick ears. Sometimes there are black and white specimens. During the past twenty years a good many dogs of European breed have been introduced into Uganda and have mingled freely with the native stock, giving rise to many types of mongrels. It is strange that so intelligent a })eople as the Baganda should, before * Tliis last-named is evidently tlie oldest breed of domestic sheep that entered Afiica. It is noteworthy that the .sheep of "Western Africa from the Congo basin and Angola through Nigeria to the Gambia is without a fat tail, and has a long throat mane. BANTU NEGROES 671 the advent of Europeans, have done nothing whatever towards domesti- cating tiie interesting, beautiful, valuable, and eatable l)easts and birds with which their country abounds. JMutesa and Mwanga had slight leanings towards the keeping of menageries. Mwanga caused a swamp at the bottom of his palace to be excavated and made into an ornamental lake in which he kept crocodiles. jNIutesa and his predecessor Suna were said to have had tame lions and young elephants at their court, l)ut no European observer ever saw these, and it is doubtful whether these creatures lived long in captivity. Occasionally a native catches and tames a young baboon or a colobus monkey. Until the last few years it never occurred to any of them to domesticate the Egy[»tian and sj)ur-winged geese which swarm on the shores of the Victoria Nyanza. Yet these liirds, if caught young, are most easily tamed and become just as fearless of man as the domestic goose. Guinea-fowls, if caught young, are equally easy to domesticate. There is no reason why (as the Baganda are handy enough at catching anything, from a hippopotamus to a snake) they should not capture and tame all the interesting creatures round them, and domesticate such as are actually of use to man. As regards the food of these people, they are fond of meat when they can get it, either by killing goats, sheep, cattle, or wild animals. ]Meat is sometimes cooked in water with red pepper and the spicy grains of the amomum, or it is grilled over the fire on a rough gridiron. A common practice is to run lumps of flesh on to wooden spits and stick them up in a slanting position over the fire. Fish, of course, enters largely into the diet of the people, and I have already mentioned that locusts, white ants, and the kungu fly are also eaten. A kind of thick soup or curry is made of meat or fish, which is eaten with banana "stodge" as a relish. The staple food is bananas. Sweet potatoes are also eaten, boiled or roasted, and ground-nuts and grains, such as Indian corn, but to a very limited extent. You frequently meet children herding goats in the fields or along the roads, and these invariably have a roasted potato in one hand and a small store of raw ones in the other. They are very quick at answering questions as to the correct road to any village, and munch away at the roasted potato in the intervals between question and answer. These random snacks of bananas or potatoes seldom answer the purpose of a regular meal. The fixed repast consists of bananas, or rather plantains,* prepared in the following way : A large earthenware pot is filled with plantains, then covered over with banana leaves, and a little water added. The plantains are first of all peeled, and as they grow * "Banana" is more the name of the short, sweet fruit of which wine is made. " Plantain " is the long banana which is nearly always eaten unripe and cooked, and which is not sweet. 072 BANTU NEGROES liiii]) ill tilt' iKtiliiiir. they fuse into a solid mass. The pot is su})[)orted over the tire l)v three stones of sufficient size, placed in jiosition to serve as a tripod. Instead of stones for tliis ])urpose one occasionally sees three old l>ots, inverted, ])lactd round the tire, and the cooking-pot set on top of them. When the mass is cooked, the pot is taken ofif the fire, some fresli banana leaves are put on the ground, and the contents is turned out on to the leaves hv inverting the cooking-pot. The cooked bananas have a mashed appearance, but you can still detect the shape of the original fruit in the heaj). If they can afford it, they have a soup, curry, or gravy to eat with the bananas. Some meat is boiled down, or some fish is cooked in a small earthenware •'i)ot, not much bigger than an ordinary" sugar-bowl. When the family has gathered together for the meal, each member of it washes his or her hands by pouring water out of a jar on the fingers, one person pouring the water whilst another twirls and rubs his fingers. Then the person who poured the water hands the jar to the other, so that he in turn may rub and wash his hands. There is no towel for drying ; it is sufficient to give the hands a few violent shakes. They then sit round the mass of banana jjulp, men, women, and children altogether. The soup or gravy is sub-divided between one or two other small earthenware bowls, so that a person has not to lean across the food to reach it. The heap of food is then parcelled out into a number of little mounds, and each person has one in front of him. He takes up a piece of the mashed l)lantain, forms it more or less into a ball in his hand, then dips it into the gravy. If he considers that there is little chance of the gravy dripping from the ball while it is on its way to his mouth, he raises the ball quietly -and disposes of it. If he suspects that there is to be a drip, he casts a hurried glance at the ball of food as it is raised out of the gravy, and regulates the pace to the mouth so that it arrives just before any drop has fallen. If a drop has fallen on the ground, he disposes of the ball first, and then casts a rueful glance at the spot where it fell. Every drop of the soup is precious, and very little of it is wasted. The youngsters of the famil}', having had less experience and less tact in regulating the quantity of soup each time, and the rate at which the piece <5f food should be conveyed to the mouth, frequently waste some; but tliis is soon noticed, and the elder members of the family charge the younger ones with the waste, especially if there are several di])ping in the same bowl. The youngster admits at once the heinousness of the offence, and in order to guard against a repetition of it he first of all dips the ball in tlie jiowl, then touches it on his mound of banana pulp in order to catch any loose droi;s of gravy, and then conveys it to his mouth. He takes care next. time to pick up the part of the mound on which he- BANTU NEGROES 673 touched the loose drop on the last occasion, immerses it in the bowl, touches it again on the mound, and so on ; so that by this method none at all of the gravy is lost. The pieces of meat or fish used in making the soup are allowed to remain for the end, and are then distributed so that each jjerson gets at least one morsel. When the meal is over, the hands are again washed. Plantain pulp is nourishing food. Thousands never eat anything else. It does not follow that the people are not hardy because they are fed on this soft, bulky food. "I have seen," writes Mr. Cunningham, '' boys and men whom I have overtaken on the road start off to race my bicycle, and keeping up the race for a distance of five miles without effort, even at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour."' The favourite drink of the Baganda is " mwenge," a kind of sweet beer which is made from the juice of the banana. For this purpose a small kind of banana is usually employed which grows very sweet, as it ripens after the bunch has been cut from the tree. This liquid, when first brewed, is perfectly delicious. After twenty-four hours it begins to ferment, and may become a very heady, intoxicating beer. I am not aware that the Baganda make that porridge-like beer from various kinds of native grain which is so common elsew'here in Africa ; nor do they, as is done both to the east and to the west, make a fermented drink out of honey. As soon as the Sudanese from the Upper Nile settled in the country as soldiers or soldiers' followers, they introduced the bad practice of distilling a heady spirit from bananas, and this when drunk by the Baganda renders them quite mad. They get tipsy over their banana drink when it becomes fermented, but not stupefied or frantic. It is said that there are no fewer than thirty-one distinct kinds of bananas cultivated in the Kingdom of Uganda. Some of these are short, squat bananas prized for their sweetness and beer-making qualities. Others, again, are of the kind known to us as plantains— of considerable length, not excessively sweet when ripe, and used by the Baganda in an unripe state, and consequently without any sweetness at all The banana is too much the main stai)le of food. When on rare occasions a drought visits the country, and the bananas foil to bear fruit, the i)eople are on the verge of starvation, since they grow a very insutficient supi)ly of any other vegetable food. Sweet potatoes * are cultivated, and the English potato has been adopted with approval, but it is cultivated in large quantities more for sale to Europeans than to be eaten by the people themselves. A little maize and still less sorghum is gi-own for food. Eleusine is rare. There are practically two liarvests of everything in the year (except * There are said to be no less than fifty-three kinds of sweet potatoes, and twelve kinds of Indian corn. 674. BANTU NEGROES bananas, which produce all the year round), and these are coincident with the two short dry seasons whicli follow the heavy rains of the winter and summer. There is a considerable growth of mushrooms throughout the whole country, and five species are wholesome. They are much liked by the Baganda. and are equally appreciated by Europeans. The flavour of one kind is quite sufficient to provoke the raptures of a gourmet. The Baganda grow sesanmm, which produces a seed full of oil. No less than twenty kinds of peas and beans, certain herbs the leaves of which greatly resemble spinach, and various seeds, fruits, roots, and leaves of the forest are in use as articles of food. The sugar-cane grows most luxuriantly in the regions near the lake shore or near rivers, and produces an excellent cane sugar. Before the arrival of Indians and Europeans, however, the Baganda never made sugar. They only chewed the stalk of the cane for its delicious sweet juice. Tomatoes grow abundantly in Uganda now, and are no doubt eaten by the natives, who also sell them to Europeans. The cotiee-tree is possibly indigenous to the forests of Uganda and the neighbouring islands. The Baganda chew the sweet pulp round the beans, bnt make no use of cofifee as a beverage. A plant which has spread rai)idly throughout Uganda in a few years is the Cape gooseberry, the fi-uits of which have an agreeable sub-acid flavour, and a taste very much like cherries. Excellent tobacco is gi-own by them with very little care. It grows sometimes luxm-iantly on their middens or on places where they have allowed cow-dung or refuse of human habitations to accumulate. Tobacco is smoked in clay pipes, which are often most artistic in design, ornament, and colouring. It is not, I believe, taken nowadays as snuif. Both sexes smoke. Hemp is grown, but when smoked by the people in water pipes it so infm-iates them that hemp-smoking is virtually prohibited by native law. The word for " hemp-smoker " is practically synonymous with ''brigand." '-fanatic," or "debauchee." As regards their agriculture, it is not in any way remarkable. They devote themselves so largely to their banana groves, which they are careful to keep clear of undergrowth, that they have not developed any special skill in dealing with other food crops. Needless to say, they have no idea of ploughing, the jAough being an implement of the Caucasian, and utterly foreign to the Negro* and in early days to the INIongolian. The soil is tilled almost entirely by the hoe. Neither have the Baganda much idea of irrigation or draining. The imi)ro\ement shown in the growth of tobacco on dung-hills does * It is remarkable that even the wild pagan Gala of inner Xorth-East Africa use a plough, .showing that they are mainly a Caucasian race in this as in other respects. BANTU NEGROES 675 not seem to have given them any notion of manuring the soiL When a piece of ground is exhausted by the frequent bearing of crops, they clear a fresh piece of brushwood. In this way, of course, they encroach year by year on the forests that remain in the country. It is this wasteful habit of the African — whose only idea of manuring the soil is, when he first clears it, to cut down and burn to ashes all the brushwood and trees, afterwards digging the ashes into the soil — which has done so much to turn Africa from a land of forest into one of prairie, steppe, and even desert. As a Negro tribe flourishes and increases in numbers, so it gradually destroys all the forests in its country by extending its clearings for agricultural })urposes and abandoning each plantation as the soil becomes exhausted after the first few crops. The Baganda seem to have appreciated shade-trees, and even trees with handsome foliage, and to have left them growing near their habitations (rather than to have planted them). Yet to a Muganda the idea of one's de- liberately planting a tree for the sake of its beauty is one almost beyond his grasp at present. Their country blazes with magnificent flower-shows of which the Baganda remain quite insensible. The ekiri- kiti {Erythrina), the Lonchocarpus, the Spatliodea, the Combretiini, the Mussceoida display to him their lamps of scarlet and crimson, their lilac bunches and cascades of mauve, and he sees no beauty in all this, though he has a keen eye for what is lovely and elegant in other directions. I have never once heard a pure-blooded Negro in Africa express admiration for a beautiful or bright-coloured flower, though I have seen the little Congo Pygmies occasionally pick off small blossoms and thrust them by the stalk into the holes which they have bored in their upper lips. 376. JIETHOl) OV CARRYING PIPE SLUNG OVER THE LEb'T SHOULDER (J7G BAXTU NEGROES There are three kinds of "doctors" in un^ol)histicated Uganda settle- ments.* The '• ^lusawo " is a real doctor, a man who lias acquired a knowledge of the curati\e power of certain herbs and plants, and who knows how to treat ulcers, wounds, or skin diseases empirically, if not always with practical benefit. Tiie "Mulogo" has an evil reputation. He is said to travel aliout at night stark naked, and is then believed — and believes himself — to be in some respects a ghost or disembodied spirit. If he has a spite against any one, he will dance naked at midnight before their banana plantation. The trees will then become withered and the fruit shrivel. The '"Mulogo" has some power of self-hypnotism, and undoubtedly exercises a mesmeric influence over weak-minded people. He is used as a detective of criminals, and his aid is invoked when love charms are required or when an injury to an enemy is to be worked by secret means. Before the bulk of the peo})le became converted to Christianity, the ''Mulogo" was often confounded with the priest, and carried on the worship of spirits. There is also a class of individuals known as the "Mwabutwa." He is a poisoner, either on his own account or for hire. The Baganda have a great belief in blood-letting as a relief to pain or inflammation, or even as a ^prophylactic measure. The cupping is done with a small antelope or goat horn that has a hole pierced at the tip. The place where the cupping has to take place (on the back of the head, back of the neck, or elsewhere on the body) is first of all scarified with a razor. The mouth of the horn is then placed over the incisions, and the blood-letter sucks hard through the tip of the horn. The blood of the patient cannot enter the mouth of the man who operates because there is a wad or coil of banana leaf fitted inside the horn. The Baganda also believe that there is much good in both massage and sweating. Patients suffering from dyspepsia have the stomach kneaded not only with the hands, but actually trampled on with the feet. Xo doubt they occasionally cure some small complaints by shutting themselves up in a small hut with a fire and causing themselves to perspire freely. They profess to be acquainted with native remedies for both syphilis and gonorrhoea ; and no doubt there is something to be said for their treatment, if one may judge by the results effected on those who submit to it. Many of their remedies are purely empiric, but it is possible that the herbs, bark, and roots of which they make their native medicines may often possess valuable therapeutic qualities. Theoretically, the whole of the Kingdom of Uganda is noiv converted to Christianity in its Koman or Anglican forms, with the exception of about It is necessary to write "unsoi)liisticated," because the manners and customs of the people are changing so rajiidly under the spread of European and Asiatic civiHsation that old beliefs and practices are fast disajipearing in favour of more enlightened procedure. BANTU NEGROES 077 a twentieth part of its po})ulation, which is Muhammadan. That is to say, that all the chiefs and aristocracy and a large number of the peasants have become more or less professing Christians, and an}' open adherence to pagan beliefs is practically at an end, though, no doubt, a great deal of belief still exists in outlying parts in the ancestral spirits and in witchcraft. When Speke first entered Uganda the chiefs and people firmly adhered to a someivlutt elaborate relifjion, based, no doul)t, like all African religions, on the original worship of ancestors, luit actually devel(jped into a cult of numerous spirits or supernatural agencies (about thirty-^even in number), who were associated with the lightning, the hurricane, the rain, various diseases, earthquakes, and other natural i)henomena. No doubt the religious beliefs of Uganda were at one time identical with those of Unyoro and Busoga. Nowadays, the word in general use for the Supreme Deity is Katonda. It is doubtful, however, whether, before the Baganda came under the influence of jNIuhammadans and Christians, they recognised one supreme god high above all the other deities. The spirit which came nearest to occupying such a position was Kazoha, who was the god of immensity, of the firmament. His name is interesting etymologically, as its root "-zoba" is a variant of an old Bantu word for " sun," a root which, with other prefixes, is sometimes applied to the sky in general. The most influential_of their gods was Mukasa, who seems to have been originally an an cestrah spirit,* and whose place of origin and principal temple was on the biggest of the Sese Islands. Mukasa became in time the Neptune of Uganda, the god of the lake, who was to be propitiated every time a long voyage was undertaken. In former times — in fact, down to the conversion of Mwanga to Christianity — Mukasa and some of the other gods were provided with earthly wives. Virgins were set apart to occupy this honourable position, and lived under the same disabilities as the Vestal Virgins, though it is to be feared that their infraction of the rule of chastity was far more frequent. Among other gods was Musisi, who was identified with the cause of earthquakes; Khvanuka, the god of lightning; Kakayaga, the deity who rode on the hurricane. Lule caused the rain to descend, or withheld it. Ndaula was the smallpox fiend.f Kiicuka and yenda were the gods of battle.:}: Many temples to Mukasa existed in the coast-lands of the A'ictoria Nyanza and in the Sese Islands. There was one large house dedicated to * According to tradition, Mukasa was one of the coin])anioiis of Liikedi, the " William the Conqueror " of Unyoro. t Note that this evil spirit is developed from the worship of the real or mythical person Ndaula, of Unyoro, who founded the Unyoro dynasty. Vide p. 594. t Besides the ancestral spirits and demi-gods, the Baganda, especially those dwelling in the Kiagwe Forest, believed vaguely in the existence of elves, or sjirites, whom they call " Ngogwe." 678 BAXTU NEGROES this Spirit of the Waters on a headland about twenty miles to the west of Entebbe, which was destroyed by Mwanga, more with the idea of seizing the vast stock of goods which had accumulated there by religious offerings, than because ,of his conversion to Christianity. The men — apart from doctors and wizards — who were specially attributed to the cult of the various deities and ancestral spirits in the Uganda religion were termed " Bamandwa." Their functions, clothing, and practices were very similar to the priests of the Bachwezi jin Unyoro. They usually wore little white goat skins as ajjrons, and were adorned with various charms, such as antelope horns, containing mysterious rubbish believed to be medicine. The " Mandwa," or priest, was also a diviner, able by supernatural means to answer questions put to him as to an oracle. If a man was travelling and wished for news of his parents and his wife, he went to the Mandwa, who, furnished with his nine kauri shells sewn on a strip of leather, would with this strip (which was called " Engato ") make the sign of the cross and fling it before him, and then, as if inspired, would reply to the questions. Some diviners naturally enjoyed greater repute than others for the fidelity of their predictions or prognostications. It is a curious fact, attested by several missionaries who are authorities as to the practices of the Baganda before Christianity was introduced, that the cross was often employed as a mystic symbol by the priests who directed the worship of the spirits. The priests of the Uganda Nej)tune (Mukasa) carried a paddle as the emblem of their office or as a walking-stick. History in Uganda goes back with a certain })roportion of probability and truth to about the middle of the fourteenth century of our era, when the western coast-lands of the Victoria Nyanza were regarded as loosely held appanages of the two or three Hima kingdoms which stretched over Unyoro, Toro, Ankole, and Karagwe. Possibly for reasons of health the Bahima did little to occupy the richly forested countries of Kiagwe, Uganda, Buddu, Kisiba, etc. They applied the term " Bairo," or "slaves," to the Negi'O races living in these well-forested countries from which the Bahima aristo- crats on the interior plateaux derived coffee berries and bark-cloth. Some j450 years ago (if one may venture to estimate the lapse of time by native tradition as to the number of kings that have reigned since then) a Muhima 'hunter from Unyoro, who went by the name of Muganda, or •• the brother,"* nieai (Urunyoro). There is probably" not much truth iu the legend that tlie first sovereign of these countries was called " :Muganda," and gave his name to the land. On parts of ^ the southern shore of tlie Victoria Xyanza there are lands or districts called '" lUigando," and it is possible that this name "Buganda" may have long been hanging about the western half of the Victoria Xyanza, and that it existed as a place-name before the Baganda had deflected the root to mean "brother." EANTU NEGROES 079 oaine with a pack of dogs,* a woman, a spear, and a shield to tlie Katonga valley. The Katonga marsh-river is a long watercourse, which at the present day separates the Kingdom of L'ganda from its dependent Province of Buddu. This hunter, ]Muganda. was a poor man, but so successful in hunting that large numbers of the aboriginal negroes, the Bairo, flocked to him for flesh. They became so attached to him as to invite him to become their chief, complaining that their distant Muhima sovereio-n in Unyoro lived too far away for his sovereignty to be of any use to them. Muganda hesitated, fearing to come into conflict with the Bahima aristocracy, who looked upon these lake countries as their hunting ground for slaves, j But at last he consented, became the ruler of the country between the Nile | and the Katonga Kiver (the modern Uganda), gave his own name to the ; country, which he called Buganda, and himself took the new name of Kiviera. The legend runs that the kings of Gala blood in Unyoro and on the Ankole Plateau received the news of a Hima wanderer having become the elected chief of Uganda Avith equanimity, saying, " What does it matter to us what goes on in those lands from which we draw our slaves ? " How- ever, this Norman of Central Africa soon erected his principality into a strong and well-organised power. The people of the coast-lands between Busoga on the north and the Kagera Eiver on the west formed a gi-oup of Bantu Negroes somewhat distinct from the Unyoro stock to the west of them (that group of Unyoro Bantu Negroes which stretched, and stretches still, its range from the north end of Lake Albert right round to the south- west corner of the Victoria Nyanza and its southern archipelago of Bukerebe, and also south-westwards towards Tanganyika). Although the two great languages of Urunyoro and Luganda (with their derived dialects) are very near akin in general structure and vocabulary, still they are as different one from the other as S})anish is from Italian, perhaps a little more so. In one small point the language of Uganda is more primitive, comes nearer to the original Bantu mother- tongue than the Urunyoro or Kavirondo groups on the west and east of it. Among the sixteen or seventeen original Bantu prefixes there is a very well defined one applied to place, the locative prefix. This in the original tongue was "Pa-," and in that form it is still met with in a large proportion of Bantu languages at the present day. But in the regions of the A'ictoria Nyanza there is a strong dislike to the consonant "P" as an initial, and the " Pa-" prefix has nearly everywhere became " Ha-." But for this detail the Bantu languages of the regions round the northern half of the Victoria Nyanza would come very near in structure and vocabulary to the original Bantu mother-tongue. Now in l'ganda the * Some say " a white dog.'' VOL. II. 14 G80 BAXTU NEGROES " Pa-" prefix has become '• \Va-," which is, perhaps, a degree nearer to the original form. This may seem a trifling matter to occuiw so much space in print, l)ut taken in connection with other features of the Luganda language it argues that there has been a marked separation for centuries ]-,et\veen the Negro people of the northern and western coast -lands of the Victoria Nyanza and the countries behind them to the north and west, which for a period of untold length have been permeated and ruled by a Gala aristocracy. The Eacanda historians of the last fortv vears who have told the traditions of' their country to European inquirers have, however, not been satisfied to commence the dynasty of their kings with Kimera. [They trace the descent of Kimera further back, through several mythical \i monarchs of the derai-god order, to a being named Kintu, who (as may |be seen in the last chapter) exists also in the traditions of Unyoro. Kintu may be a personification of the first influential emigrants from Gala countries who gave an impetus to civilisation in Unyoro. Official Uganda genealogies have adopted this mythical Kintu and a number of his ancestors, who were Gala kings or chiefs in Unyoro, as the first monarchs of the Uganda dynasty, which would be the same thing as though in Great Britain we recognised the Electors of Hanover before George I. as " Kings of England." The first real king of Uganda was this Kimera, who, at a rough guess, must have reigned over a jiortion of Uganda about the time that Henry IV. of Lancaster was King of England — that is to say, about the beginning of the fifteenth century. In the days of Kimera and his immediate successors the kingdom of L'ganda was a small tract of country about an average fifty miles in breadth, extending along the lake shore from the mouth of the Katonga River on the west, to the vicinity of Mengo (the modern District of Kiadondo) on the east. Later on, but not so very long ago, the forest district of Kiagwe (which is bounded by the Victoria Nile, and in which remnants of a Pygmy race still linger) was added to the dominions of the king of Uganda, though its own native ruler was apparently recognised as a vassal prince, and the governor of Kiagwe to this day is a very im^iortant. semi-independent iunctionary in the kingdom. On the west and north by degrees Uganda stretched out its hands over Singo, Busuju. and ^Nfawokota; and, finally, Buddu, the largest district in the Uganda kingdom at the present day, which lies on the west coast of the Victoria Nyanza, was conquered by a king of Uganda named Junju, who lived in tlie latter part of the eighteenth century. Nevertheless, though this kingdom has been gradually built up by the conquest of a numl)er of lake^, coast provinces formerly attached to the western Hima kingdoms," its extension until comparatively recent days was a}iparently BANTU NEGROES (JBl mainly co-ordinate Avith the area over which the 1. Uganda language was spoken. Had Uganda definitely included at the present day a part of Kusoga on the east and the country of Kisiba on the west (which lies to the south of the Kagera River), it would include all the Luganda- speaking countries. As a matter of fact, it is the British Government, which for various reasons decided not to include Eusoga within the limits of the Uganda kingdom, and which assented to a small portion south of the Kagera River coming within the German sphere, that has brought about the existence of an '' Uganda irredenta." The following is a list of the kings of Uganda from the present day back to the name of Kimera, the assumed founder of the dynasty. This list is compiled by me from such information as could be obtained from intelligent chiefs who were still versed in their country's traditions. It cannot claim to be historically accurate any more than any other rendering of floating traditions. Some of the names may be synonymous for the same individual, or they may be the names of independent and rival monarchs who reigned simultaneously. Local tradition points to the graves of nearly all these monarchs as still existing in the district of Busiro, which, in some respects, seems to have been the nucleus of the Uganda power. Monseigneur Streicher informs me that in travelling about Busiro he has counted thirty-eight tombs alleged to be the burial- places of successive kings who reigned before Mutesa. The following is a tentative list of the Uganda kings. This list differs slightly from the previous catalogues given by Wilson, Stanley, and Stuhlmann. Kimera (said to have been called '• Muganda '"). Tembo. Kigala. Nakibingo I. Wampamba, or Matebe. Kamanya I. Suna I. Zemba. Kimbugwe (? a mayor of the palace, a powerful minister. See p. 683). Raima „ „ ,, ,. „ „ Nakibingo 11. ^lulondo. Tewandike. Juko. Kaemba. Kalemera. Ndaiila. Kagala. Ma wan da. ]\Iwanga I. Katerega. G82 BANTU NEGROES Namugara. Kiawago. Junju. Seiiiakokiro. Kainaiiya 11. Suiia 11. Mutesa ("'Tlie Measurer")- Mwanga 11. (deitosed). Kiwewa (killeil). Karema ,, [Mwanga II. (restored)]. Daudi Cliua (a minor). A]iolo Kagwa . Mugwanya : regents. Zakaria Kangawo ' According to tradition, Kimera, the founder of the Uganda dynasty, laid down the constitution of the kingdom and its main features as it exists at the present day. He ordained that his descendants, who were numerous (for he kejit a large harim), should bear the special title of "Balangira." or princes, and this title is always given now to the descendants of the royal house. •• Bambeja " is the term applied to the princesses of the royal family. From amongst the warriors who had helped him he created a peerage of barons styled " Bakungu." Next in rank to the " Bakungu," who have become an aristocracy, are placed the "Batongoli." a sort of upper middle class of minor functionaries who are recruited from the ranks of the "Bakopi,"' or peasants.* Kimera, the Hima founder of the Uganda dynasty, also brought with him into that country the practice initiated by the Gala conquerors of Unyoro and Ankole of founding a court of officials round the person of the s^overeign. Some of these dignities subsequently became hereditary, because they were conferred on the conquered or feudatory princes of outlying districts, such as Buddu and Kiagwe. Thus the " PokinOj" or governor of Buddu (though the }»resent occupant of the post may be descended from a ^Nluganda who replaced the liereditary prince of Buddu), is considered to be an heredi- tary title. The governor of Kiagwe is called the " Sekibobo."' The '"Kangawo" (governor of Bulemezi), the " Kitunzi," "Luwekula," and other dignitaries became the governors of provinces — " Abamasadza '' — * Some authorities on Uganda are of opinion that the word " Bakoju," which is ajridied to the nia.ss of the population, the peasant cultivator class, at the present day, was the name of an aboriginal population which inhabited Uganda and I'nyoro in ancient times, and which was conquered and enslaved by the original Bantu invaders and again by the Hamites. In Unyoro the root "-kopi " becomes "-chiope." It is the name at the i)resent day of a large tribe in the north of Unyoro, and the word reajipears in similar forms to the west of Lake Albert. BANTU NEGROES 683 and are nowadays rulers over districts. " Kasuju," now a governor, was formerly " guardian of the king's sisters." " Mukwenda " was his treasurer. The " Kiudiugwe " was the keeper of the big drums and the ro^-al fetish. The " Jumba" (now the " Owesadza " of Kuvuma) was formerly the admiral of the canoe fleet, this post now being occupied by the "Gabunga,"' who is also governor of the Sese Islands. The " ^Nlugema " was the commissioner in charge of tombs; " Mujasi " was the commander-in-chief of the army; "Kauta" was the i-teward of the king's kitchen; " Mufumbiro " was the 2,77. n:A\l)A CHIKFS. THEV AUE (liEUINNINli ON THE LEFT) E.MMOCO, TllK M I II AM M Al lA.N iMil-.t (brother of mutesa) ; mugwanya (a regent); kangawo (a regent); .\n "owesadza" (governor of a district); Paul mikwenda; and another owesadza king's cook; " Seruti '' the head brewer of " mwenge '' (banana beer). The principal personage in the kingdom amongst officials was, and is^ i-till, the "Katikiro," formerly s-tyled " Karauraviona." Tiie Katikiroj seems to have been originally the commander-in-chief of the army, but he gradually moved to the position of a prime minister or vizier. "Kunza" and "Busungu" were the first- and second-class executioners. In addition to these functionaries there were established castes attributed to special professions about the court, such as the " Banangalabe," or 68i BANTU NEGROES (huiiiiners ; the " Nsase," who rattled the gourds full of dry peas; the " liuinilele," or flute-])layers ; the " Bakonderi," or trumpeters; the " J^ananga,'' or harpers; tlie whistlers; the singers. There was the " Sabakaki," or doorkeeper; the " Mutuba," or head bark-cloth manu- facturer; the " ]Musali," or king's guide (on journeys); the " Sabadu,'' or overseer of the slaves ; and the " ^lumboa," or principal hangman. The \ mother of the king became and remains still a great person in the land. She is entitled the " ^Vamasole," and keeps a little court of her own. The King's eldest or chosen sister, both in Uganda and in Unyoro, was another personage of great importance at the court. She is generally called " Nalinya," or the " Dubuga." The princesses, as distinguished from the king's sisters, are sometimes called " Eambeja." A personage of great importance under the old regime was the woman, the midwife, who had charge of the king's navel string. The word for •• king, supreme chief," in Luganda is said to have been originally '" ^Nlukabya." " Oku-kabya " means in Luganda "' to make a person cry or weep " : seeing the barbarities inflicted by the best kings of Uganda it is not impossible that the etymology of the word '"king" — '-^Mukabva" — is " one who causes people to weep." The word, however, is never heaixl now, and for it has long since been substituted '• Kabaka," which is said to mean emperor rather than king — that is to say, a monarch over monarchs : " -baka " means "to catch, sm'prise. take unawares." I do not know whether there is any connection between the two Mords. " Ka-," of course, is merely a prefix. "Mubaka," with a different prefix, means an envoy, a messenger. Tlie kings of Uganda kept up their prestige, maintained their wealth, and asserted their influence over the aristocracy by the continual raids they made over the adjacent countries of Busoga. Bukedi. Unyoro. Toro, Ankole, and even Ruanda. On the north-east they penetrated as raiders as far as the western slopes of Mount Elgon. They stood in too great dread of the ^lasai and Xandi to pursue their ravages any farther in that direction. The limit of their power to the west at times was only the wall of the Congo Forest. Mr. Lionel Decle, in his extended explorations of the country immediately north of Tanganyika, found in a \illage an ancient Uganda shield, supposed to have been there about a hundred years, and according to the traditions of the natives it was obtained from one of the warriors of a Uganda expedition who fell in battle against the peojile of Burundi. These jjowerful Negro kings maintained a certain civilisation and a considerable amount of law and order in the territories which they governed. But they imt no limits to their lust and cruelty. The })recincts of their courts were constantly stained with human blood, execution for perfectly trifling offences being a daily occurrence. Stanley BANTU NEGROES 685 relates how Mute?a, in the earlier years of his reign, when excited by banana wine and irritable from one cause and another, would slake his wrath by rushing in amongst his women and slashing them right and left with a spear. Speke giyes numerous instances of Mutesa's leopard- like ferocity, though, like his yile son, Mwanga, he was a physical coward. Speke describes on one occasion how, when Mutesa and his wives were on a picnic with him, and one of the most beautiful among them in the gaiety of her heart offered her royal husband a nice ripe fruit which she had plucked, he turned on her savagely for her familiarity, and commenced beating her to death with a club. Speke, at the risk of his own life, intervened and saved the woman ; but his narrative abounds with similar instances of reckless cruelty on the part of the Uganda despot. The Negro worships force, and has a sneaking admiration for bloodshed. The kings of Uganda came to be regarded at last as almost god-like, and the attitude of their courtiers towards them was slavish to the last degree. 3Iwanga might have been a Stuart for his debaucheries, his cruelties, and utter faithlessness to those to whom he had passed his word. Perhaps he might still have been king had not his vicious propensities taken a turn which disgusted even his negro people, and made them fear that his precept and example spreading widely among his imitative subjects might result in the disappearance in time of the Uganda race. The cruelty of despots always seems to engender politeness. The freest nations are generally the rudest in manners. An Indian official once remarked to the present writer that the excessive, deep-seated, elaborate politeness of the natives of India was due to the 2.000 years' " whacking " they had received from dynasty after dynasty of cruel despots. So it has been in Uganda. The chiefs and people became fastidiously prudish on the subject of clothing, and regarded a nude man as an object of horror. They preferred in their language not to call a spade a spade, but to substitute for any plain noun dealing with sex or sexual intercourse the politest and vaguest of paraphrases. Yet the nation was profoundly immoral, and the dances in vogue even at the present day can be exceedingly indecent. But the race became, and remains, the politest in Africa. The earlier travellers in I'ganda have often dilated on the elaborateness of Uganda greetings and the exaggeration of their thanks. If a chief or a notable European gives a present, large or small, to a Muganda, or confers on him the least of benefits, the latter will at once kneel down, press his hands together, and wave the clasped hands up and down, gasping out a rapid repetition of "Neyanzi-ge" ("I praise or thank very much ") ; or, if they are speaking for a number, '• Tweyanzi-ge " (''We praise or thank exceedingly"). This exaggerated spirit of thankfulness sometimes displays itself rather charmingly. The peoi)le are full of keen OSO BANTU NEGROES sympathy for any one who appreciates their country and its beauties. Chiefs and })easants have fretpiently said to me, "Thank you for coming," "Thank you for having enjoyed yourself,'' ''Thank you for having painted such a nice picture," "Thank you for having slept well." "Thank you for admiring tho>-e flowers." " Thank you for having slapped my son " was once said to me by the father of a boy who, with most un-Uganda- like impoliteness, had, when rom[)ing witli another boy, dashed through the verandah of my tent and upset a glass of water over m\' drawing. Througliout all this elaboration of courtesy the Muganda retains a native manliness, and the women a most winning conviction of their inherent charms, which entirely rob their sniiling faces, the gestures of their well- kept hands, and their constant anticipations of one's desires, of anything like servility, just as they have adopted Christianity more whole-heartedly than any Xegro race existing, and yet I do not think I have once met a Uganda hypocrite. Their chiefs are certainly native gentlemen who possess a degree of tact which many Europeans might imitate. I do not think I have e\er been bored by a Muganda. If they come on a visit, they rise to go at the right moment. When you are travelling through their country, and arrive at a camp near the residence of a big chief, he would never dream of paying you a visit until he had first ascertained that you had rested from your fatigue, and that his presence would be agreeable. Many of their salutations and greetings are somewhat elaborate. Peasants passing one another who ha^•e frequently met will probably say nothing but "Kulungi?" ("Is it well"''"). But if two individuals have not met for some considerable time, the following dialogue (with variations) will take place : — M. " Otya ? " or " Otyano ? '" (" How dost thou do ? ") N. " Aa " (" Xo, no '" — this in de})recation). "Otva?'' (" How dost /'Ao^f. do ? ") M. " Ye " (•' Yes "). " Gwotyano ? " ('• How dost thou do ? ") y. "Kulungi" ("Well"). M. "Agafayo" ("What news?") X. "Enungi" (" Gocd news"). M. "Aa." X. "Aa."' M. "Um!" iV. "Um!" And so tliey go on, grunting at each other loudly, then in a lower key, until at length they are scarcely audible, though the lips go on working. The Baganda are most particular about this interchange of grunts. It is thought a gross rudeness to break ofif after merely grunting six times. BANTU NEGROES 687 Most of tliis time the gruiiters are croucliiiig in a squatting attitude. Another dialogue of greetings might be between an infeiior and a superior, between master and servant. The servant will say: "Wasuz' otya?' ('How hast thou slept?"). Tlie master will reply: " Obulungi " or " Nasuze "' (" I have slept well "). Another dialogue between equals may be as follows : — Q. "Erade?" ("Art thou well?") .4. "Erade" ("[I am] well"). Q. "Nyo?" ("Very well?") A. "Nyo." Q. "Nyo ge?" ("Very well indeed?") A. "Nyo ge." Q. "Mamu?" A. "^lamu." When a person is going, or when it is desired to terminate an interview, the following phrase is used : " Mase okukulaba ; flenze " (" I have finished seeing you, I am going"). The not very intelligible reply is " Weraba " ("See yourself"). "Weraba" is the polite phrase for "Good-bye." "Wewao!" is a curter form of assent or dismissal. Sim})le expressions for "Thank you" are " Webale " ("Eravo! well done!"), " Wampa " ("You gave me "), " Ompade " (" You have given me "). Equivalents of the Knglish words "sir" and "madam" would be "Sebo" addressed to a man, and "Nyabo" addressed to a woman. A more familiar form of address would be " Munange," or " friend." " Otya baba " ("How do you do, mv dear sir or lady ? ") is a greeting combining aftectionate familiarity with respect. It is usually a sign of resp)ect in Uganda for men to remove their j head-coverings when they enter the presence of a superior or one whom they do not know very well, and this is done even though it means the taking off of a turban with many folds. Women under like circumstances will squat down on their "hunkers," and softly clap the hands, bowing the head at the same time. With regard to marriage, the peasantry, or " Kakopi," follow this procedure : A man has generally ascertained that his advances will he favourably received before he makes any definite move. If he meets the girl, he asks permission to speak to her elder brother or uncle, and if she consents the peasant buys two gourds full of native beer, and repairs to her father's house. The brother or male relative meets him at the entrance to the enclosure that surrounds the house, takes the beer, and conducts the suitor to the girl's father. As scon as the beer is disposed of, the father mentions certain articles that he should like as a present, possibly 10,000 kauri shells, a goat, a bundle of salt, and a few strips of bark-cloth. The suitor then retires and does the OSS BANTU NEGROES l;e.->t he can to olttain the quantity of each article mentioned. If he is a rich man, he will not take long, but in any case he must not return for the bride before three days. This is the period universally ^llowel for making her ready — that is, shaving her hair and anointing her all over with oil. After a lajjse of an internal ranging from thr.n> (lays to a month and a half, the suitor returns with the shells and other things, probably costing, all told, some 18s. to 20s. Tlrese things are given to the father of the girl. At the same time, the suitor must not have forgotten to bring a small calabash of beer for the bride's sister. When these things are handed over, a party is formed at the father's house and all proceed to the bridegroom's house, beating •drums and singing. The afternoon, evening, and night are spent in -dancing and drinking beer. In the morning the party separates, and the ceremony is finished, the bride remaining with her husband. Marriage between /i7's^ cousins is forbidden to the Baganda. The wife's motlier is under a serious ban in Uganda. She must not enter her daughter's house, and she must not speak to her son-in-law. Should they meet accidentally on the path, she must turn aside and cover her head with her clothes. If her wearing apparel is not sufficient to cover her head, the exactions of etiquette may be met by sitting on the haunches and covering the eyes and part of the face with the open hands. When the son-in-law has passed, she may go on her way. She may pay a visit to her daughter, but she cannot enter the house. She remains twenty yards off; the daughter goes to her, and they sit and talk. If the son- in-law is -indoors, and not in view from outside, the mother-in-law may «hout "Otya" (that is, "How dost thou?") and the son-in-law may ■answer her from inside the hut ; but it would be a gross breacli of etiquette either to carry the conversation fmther, cr for the mother-in-law to look in at the door, or her son-in-law to glance at her from within the hut. The marriage of a noble with another noble's daughter is modelled on the peasant's routine. If a chief wishes to marry a "Mukope" (or peasant) ■girl, there is often a de[)arture from routine, but fcnil play or violence in ■such matters is now a thing of the })ast. Even the " Kabaka."' or king, follows the routine in the matter of sending 1 native beer to the girl's father as the first step in contem})lated matrimony ; ' but as a rule, in the past, the chiefs gave him their daughters willingly, and if the daughters were given without any overtures on the part of the Kabaka, then no beer was offered to the father of the girl. A peasant could not oflVr his daughter directly to the Kabaka : she had to be passed to one of tlip great chiefs, and thence she was taken to the royal household. After a lapse of four or five years she might be allowed to return to her father's house for a visit of from three to four months, and on such occasion. BANTU NEGROES 080 if slie was still in favour, the Kal)aka was wont to behave very generouslv, sending handsome presents of cattle and cloth to her parents. The standing of the child depends very little, if anything, on the rank of his mother. Kulabako, the mother of the present Kabaka, is a Mukopi woman from Buddu. She is, nevertheless, a charming person, and one cannot help admiring the easy and graceful way in which she bears herself on great occasions. The princess Nalinya is considered very pretty, and her native grace- fulness is quite as remarkable as that of the queen-mother. Nalinya is a daughter of king Karema. The princess Kamwanda is not so charming as Nalinya. She is also a daughter of Karema. These princesses apjx'ar to be not more than eleven or twelve years of age. They are slim of build, tall, and graceful, and seem very much attached to their cousin, H.H. the Kabaka (Daudi Chua). By the new constitution the Ka])aka comes of age at eighteen, and will then draw a subvention at the rate of £1,500. Durinor his minority he draws £800 a year. The Uganda Administration has also made aini)le 2)rovision for the queen-mother, the nati\e ministers, and the junior members of the royal house of Mutesa. Divorce. — Faithlessness on the part of the Kanaka's wives was a serious matter. The penalty was, both for the woman and the co-respondent (if found), to be "chopped up alive together" — that is, they were cut into little pieces. This, of course, refers to the past. At the present time adultery is dealt with by fines in the native court. In some parts of Uganda the penalty is the whi|)ping of the male offender. On no account whatever can a woman be subjected to corporal l^unishment. A wife is not discarded by her husband on account of faith- lessness. Even if she contracts disease from promiscuous connection, and temporarily leaves her husliand's house, she is taken back when she wishes to return, and the husband even brings the influence of her relations to bear on her with the object of inducing her to return. These formalities in regard to marriage are adhered to more or less .strictly in remote places at the present time ; but near the more populous .settlements the girls and even women take an independent course of their own. One frequently meets girls who say (juite frankly, not that they wish to be married, but that they have no husbands. Birth. — A wife is not delivered in her husband's liouse. As the p.eriod of pregnancy draws to a close, the husband liorrows a neighbour's house, or he builds a temporary shed at a short distance from his own hut, and some days before delivery the wife adjourns to tiie temporary quartei's. Her mother is called to attend her, and any other neighbouring women who are skilled in obstetrics may be called in to assist. The mother-in-law (;i);i r,A\TU NEGROES rtMiiiiiiis with lit r daui^litcr kv four days after the event, then she returns home, and the wife comes back to her husband's house. The husband does not visit liis wife whih^ she is absent from his hut : it would be a breach of etiquette to do so. Tliere are no ceremonies, superstitious or otherwise, before cr after the biitli of a cliild. A hirge percentage of I'ganda women are childless, possibly barren. When or.e woman has a second son it is considered a great event, and there is a special drum beat to announce the fact to all whom it dees and does not concern. This drumming is called " Xtujo," and a joyful husband may kee[) it up at his own door for a })eriod of a month. The ••Ntujo" is a signal to all his friends to come and rejoice and drink beer witii him. A wife who has borne a second son must be presented with, nothing less than a new piece of bark-cloth, costing at least Is. 4c/., as a recoijnition of her achievement. BANTU NEGROES 091 The pat 'rnal grandfather gives a name to the cliild This naming is a verv peculiar function. A great deal depends on tiie name given, and there are certain foods forbidden to families l)earing certain names. For instance, if a child is called LudiKja. it must never eat the flesh (jf an otter; a man named Mdi/aii/d cannot eat the flesh of a sheep; nor can one who is called Kateiidd eat the Profopterus (lung-fish). The ]irohil)ition extends to the man's descendants for all time. liut it does not include^ his wife or wives. They may have a prohibition of their own inherited from their father, but the sons or daughters are only involved in the prohibition of their father: the prohibition (if any) which ap})lies to their mother does not affect them. These restrictions regarding diet are no doubt connected with the totem or sacred symbol of the clan ("kika") to which any person belongs. A jNluganda woman may not eat fowls. If she is a single woman, and living in a house of her own, she may eat ^gg^^ ; but if she marries, she ceases by custom to eat eggs, though her husband may do so. Mutton is also prohibited to all ^Muganda women. If they ate forbidden food they would suffer something like a loss of caste, and they assert that if either a man or woman ate food which was forbidden by caste, he or she would become covered with ulcers. In regard to beef or veal, there is no name involving a prohibition. Any one may eat it. Allusion has already been made in connection with Unyoro to the fact that the people of Unyoro and I'ganda ai*e divided into clans which have as their totems — these totems being sacred or lieraldic objects — beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, or vegetables which in some way or other are identified with the original founders of the clan. In Uganda proper and its southern province of Buddu there are twenty-nine clans with the following totems : — No. I.Uganda designation. En;.;lisli etiuivaltnt. 1. Xsenene .... Grasshopper. 2. Mamba Lung-fish {Protopterus). 3. Fumbi Ljicaon dog (Cape hunting dog). 4. Njovu Flejihant. 5. Xonge Otter. 6. >i'go Leopard. 7. Mporogoma .... Lion. 8. Butiko Mushroom. 9. Musvi Ground-rat, an octodont rodent {Thvyonomys swinderenianus). 10. Enkima White-nosed monkey {Cercopithecm petmirist'X or rut'oi'iriJis). 11. Mvubu Hii)popotamus. 12. Kobe A creeping ])lant with a fruit like a chestnut or potato. ()\)2 EANTU NEGllOES No. Lv^franda designatii)ii. 13. Mi)eu . 14. Ntala^^aiiya . 15. Ngabi . 1(). Mbogo . 17. Nyonyi . 18. Mbwa . 19. Ka.siniba 20. Liikindo 21. Kibe . . 22. Enkedye 23. Endiga . 24. Jilali 2'\ ^Slonibe* 26. Lugavwe 27. Engeye . 28. Katumvuma . 29. Mpindi . Kii<;lis-h equivalent. An oribi auteloiio. C't'/)halo/th lis aiitelo] le. Kushbuck {Tr. If the dead man is the head of a family, a frame is made in the centre of his hut, and short ]iieces of banana stems (called '• Sanja "j are placed across the frame, making a rude sort of couch about eighteen inches above the floor. Bark-cloth is spread on this framework, and the corpse is stretched on this, and a few pieces of bark-cloth are spread over it. The head wife, in case of her death, can also claim to have a frame made in the centre of the hut, but the ordinary members of the family, the sons or daug-hters or subsidiarv wives, cannot be accorded this mark of distinction when they die. The head wife is called " kabedya." The corpse frame in the case of the junior members of the family must be erected along one of the side walls of the hut. The period between death and interment varies from a few hours to a few davs. Generallv, as soon as the relations are come together, they dig (V,)l BANTU NEGROES a gr.ivc ill the garden before the dcjor of the hut, and the corpse, wrapped ii;» ill liark-cloth (not in a coflfin), is put in, and the whole covered up. A litth' mound of earth is made on to]), and then a layer of grass (•• Tete "), similar to what is strewn on the floors of houses, is laid over the earth, and the cross pieces of banana stem from the frame ("Sanja") are laid transversely over all, and the burial is complete. Weeping over the grave is quite common, even amongst the men. After the burial a small hut may be built just beside the grave, and those who wish to ni:)urii bitterly live there for a month; other members of the family and some of the relations live in the former house, and it is not usual to break up the party before a month has passed. At the end of a month they all disperse to their various homes. At the end of another month all the relations gather together again, the avowed object being '"to make an heir," or "Musika." They bring beer with them, and there is a special kind of dance and drum festival called "Xgalobi," which is proper for such occasion. The great Xgalobi is a drum almost as tall as a man. The smaller one is called '-^Ibutu." The Ngralobi song is as follows : — Ah : all ! ah 1 ah 1 ah ! ah ! ti + r i .u Ihese two lines are sung by the Kanwete iiga inianiba bweyaweta leading drummer. (Let me bend [jdunge] like a lung-fish when it plunges.) Ah : ah ! ah 1 ah 1 ah ! ah ! , They are all dancing at the time this song IS being sung. Chorus.— Ah ! ah ! ah ! ah ! ah ! ah ! Repeated by all present. Kanwete nga iniamba bweyaweta. (Let me band and plunge like a mamba (lung-fish) when it plunges.) The Ngalobi goes on till morning, when the period of mourning is supposed to terminate, except in the case of powerful chiefs. The practice of burying living people with the deceased has long since fallen into disuse, though it was a practice in past times. Laivs of Succession. — In L^ganda inheritance goes by election rather than by prescribed right. On the morrow, after the Ngalobi or final mourning festival, a mat or piece of bark-cloth is spread in front of the house. The heir is elected from amongst the sons by the sons and daughters of the deceased. The relations do not interfere in the selection. The heir, or " .Musika," may be the youngest or oldest or any of the sons. The individual chosen is usually he who has distinguished himself in any way more than the other brothers. A daughter of the deceased cannot inherit his house and garden or property. If there is no son then the brother of the deceased or his nephew is selected. Immediately after the selection is made, the " Musika " is called to sit on the mat or bark-cloth, and all the other relations come up and are introduced by the next in favour to the heir, as, BANTU NEGROES 095 for instance, "This is your brother, this is your friend, this is your cousin, this is so-and-so," till all have been formally presented. And all who are thus introduced henceforth acknowledge the man chosen to be '• Musika " as the heir and successor to the deceased. The widows of the deceased do not become the wives of the heir. They have a lien on the house and gardens, and he must build them huts, and in return they till the gardens and cook his food. One of the uncles generally sends a young daughter to live with the old women, but as this girl is cousin of the heir he must not make any overtures to her. Cousins cannot enter the same house, and must not eat out of the same dish. A man cannot marry his cousin. The widows may receive the attentions of other men in their new houses, and may marry without in any way consulting the wishes of the heir. They are not allowed to enter his house, but they may cook his food in their house and carry it to his door. If they marry there is no offering of beer given to the heir, as there was to their fathers when they were married originally. The Baganda are very quick at mastering and speaking other languafjes. They have only begun to tackle English the last two or three years, because hitherto it did not lie within the policy adopted by the two missionary societies that these people should be taught a European language. As soon, however, as the missionaries realised how completely this ignorance would shut off the intelligent Baganda from performing their due share in the administration of their country under European supervision, they at once set to work to give lessons in English to those who desired to pass beyond the elementary instruction in Luganda. The following extract from my notebook may be of interest in this connection. It is in the hand- writing of the prime minister of Uganda, Apolo Kagwa. He once made a steamer voyage with me on the lake. Much of his spare time was s^jent in writing in an exercise-book. He tore out a piece of this book one day to assist me in noting down the names of the Baganda clans. On the reverse side of my note I found this fragment in his own liandwriting. This man was patiently teaching himself English by means of a Euganda-English exercise-book furnished to him by the Church Missionary Society : — " I have tolled him and he refused " (" Namubulide nagana "). " Have you finish to eat ? " (" ^Nlumaze okulya y "). "We have finished" (-Tumaze"). The Baganda take readily to arithmetic, and are wonderfully quick at sums. Before European or Arab civilisation came anywhere near them they had already developed the ex^jressions for numerals in their own tongue to a considerable degree. The calculation is decimal. They have words for every multiple of ten up to twenty millions. For anything beyond twenty millions they employ a word— " akatabalika" — which means '-beyond count." VOL. II. ^^ 379- -VrOLO KAUWA, flK.-ST Klil.KM AM> i'llLMK .Ml.M.-^TLU OF UGANDA BANTU NEGROES (51)7 It has always seemed to me a remarkable characteristic of the Negro race, as contrasted with the Asiatic or the European, that beyond a slight interest in the sun or moon so little notice was taken of the heav'enlv bodies. I have never encountered a race of purely Negro blood that took much interest in the stars. The Hottentots are said to have names for the Pleiades and one or two other constellations, but these names seldom, if ever, occur amongst Bantu or West African Negroes. The average native of Uganda likewise takes little or no interest in the stars. They know the constellation of the Great Bear, but their only name for it means "six stars." Orion they call "the three stars.'' Sirius is simply "Munyenye," or ^' the star."' I believe they have names for Ju[)iter and Venus, but I have not been iihle to find a native wlio could repeat them to me. Their knowledge of (jeograijhy before the Arab and the European came within their cognisance was very limited. On the north it extended to the Acholi and Luru countries, beyond Lake Albert, and thence through the Acholi and Lango tribes to Mount Elgon. They had })erhai)s a glimmering knowledge, a vague legendary tradition, that far to the north- east of Mount Elgon there was a big salt lake (Lake Kudolf), and Ijeyond that again a land — Galaland or Abyssinia — in which people like tlieir own Bahima dwelt ; otherwise their knowledge of an outer world did not extend beyond the plateau occupied by the Nandi and Masai. South-west they knew of the Unyamwezi country and of the existence of Lake Tanganyika. Westwards their knowledge was entirely bounded by the great wall of the Congo Forest. They were vaguely aware that the high \ eaks of the great mountain ridge (Ruwenzori), which they called Ganiharagara, were covered with a mysterious white stuff. They had heard of or had seen the active \olcanoes of Urtiufumhiro and Kirunga. These were the bounds of their knowledge before 1850, or 1848. when a runaway l^aluch trader, Isiau, from Zanzibar, took refuge in Uganda, and first enliglitened its king (Suna) as to the existence of other worlds outside the lands of the Victoria Nvanza. The love of music on the i)art of the Baganda has liecn insisted on by many tra\'ellers. The musical scale adopted is generally the Pentatonic. One air sung to a flute accompaniment I took down on the phonogra})h. It had the following notation : — Gwe to-ya-ku- la Xte-be ya- mbala di - ba One to-ya-ko-la 'Xtebg ya luba - la-a-a (You who don't work at Entebbe ! (Go and) wear skins ! You who don't work at Entebbe ! (Go and) wea-a-a-r . . . ! ) 698 BANTU NEGEOES Tlic following specimens of some collected for me by Mr. J. F. Cunnii OuHilNAL. A song of canoemeD, when lowiDg or iiadclling. Nsologumba* kanpitejnte kunyaiija Nsologunilia oluilaita kunyanja N.sologmnl)a kanpiteiiite kunyanja iS'sologuniba leka n]»itepite kunyanja Nsologumba. Song. Bagala kutabala tebagala kuyomba Ragala kutabala Nkuwaire onnvenge siagala kuyomba pjagala kutaljala EmjMngu yomuganda erigendevuma Bagala kutabala. of the songs of Uganda were kindly igliam : — Translation. A man without helpers, let me go up and down on the lake. A man without helpers, i)a.ssing up and down on the lake. A hel]ierless man, let me go up and down on the lake. A helperless man, let me go up and down on the lake. A man \\ ithout helpers. Those who want to go raiding do not want to quarrel (among themselves) ; They want to raid. I give you beer ; 1 do not want to quarrel. They want to fight. The fleet of canoes of the Muganda hisses through the water as it goes. They want to go raiding. Laba nkwesibide nsituse nzinya Omutwe gunyinya mwanawatu Alirwa Laba nkwesibide nsituse omutwe Gunyinya mwanawatu, Alirwa. Song. Senzige zirya ebiyalo zabiryanga Muzewa muleke nezerira kazita Zirya ndagala kyotolya okiwamuno Emvunza twaziwa bigere. Song. Ndiba nzewonye. Ezemabenga ndiba nzewonj'e Ndikubulira ndibatendeia. Song for the Fhite. (A Husoga Song.) Nkoba ntya bolese omugoneio (iwagwa mungira Nkoba, Waswa, mugonero. Look, 1 have girded myself ; I have got up, I have danced. My head is shaking, my child Alirwa. Look, I have girded myself ; I have got up ; my head shakes, my child Alirwa. The locusts have eaten up the gardens. They have eaten them all u]i. Where have you all gone ? A'ou leave them to eat, but after all they only eat leaves. What you yourself do not eat you give your friend. We have given our feet to the "jigger" (burrowing flea). If I escape from the wars of Mabenga, if I escape I will tell you, I will praise you. What shall I say of those who brought a load ? It fell off on the road. Waswa, I say, a load. * A barren animal, Nsologumba ; hence a man with no children, no one to help him, no retainers. He has to do all his paddling himself. BANTU NEGROES 699 Song. Namayanja : kubakungoma erawe Nainayanja : abazalakabaka bazala Namayanja : kubakungoma erawe Namayanja : azala Kabaka alihisaka Namayanja ! Thaxsi.ation. Namayanja : beat the drum, let it .s]»eak out. Namayanja : those who bare the king bare \\ell. Namayanja : beat the drum, let it sjteak out. Namayanja : she who bore the king is at Lusaka (the queen-mother's place is called Lusaka). Namayanja ! Auamwanganga anabani ? ah I ah ! ah Entambazi teva kukyoto Auamwanganga anabani. Who will venture to go there ? ah ! ah I ah! The angry man will not leave the fire- place. Who will venture to go there ? Leka ntuke kugadi, ntuke wekoma Leka ntuke wekoma ntuke wesula Wova mukolokoni kyewerabira todira Leka ntuke mugadi. Let me get to the railway, let me reach where it stops : Let me reach where it stops ; let me reach where it rests. When you are out of the chain gang you do not go back for what you may have foi'gotten. Let me get to the railway. Nsejere ziwerera sebawala balika eyo Nkanda kubaita tebaitaba ensejere Ziwerera. The white ants are flying ; the girls who are there — 1 shouted for them, they did not reply. The ants are flying. Marriage Song. Weroboli Bwotyaemundu olizimbawawompa mailo* Nkuloza ayisa omwenge ajagana Abatalina nte mulinywaki ISIulimu atasiba nte Balinywaki 1 Choose what you like. If you are afraid of fighting (guns), where will you build 1 If you give me an estate, I will think of you as one who distributes beer and swaggers. You who have not cows, what will you drink 1 There are some who have no cows ; What will they drink 1 * The author of this book is responsible for adding one word to the I'ganda vocabulary : " mairo " or " mailo " (the English " mile "). This now means an " estate."' When the land settlement was taking i^lace, the Special Commissioner often dealt with claims in square miles, half a .square mile, and so forth. The native mind, therefore, associated the mile measurement with the idea of a private estate. 700 BANTU NEGROES Okigisal. Song. Tebawaya Tel^aja kuwaj^a awo ndide a kumere Ndowozahva iiyimbye Abeinengo tebaji Kmvaya nyiinbye a1)ebyalo teliaja kuliiiia. Marching Song. Yakuba enumdu iigagayala Mukamawange katabazi sikyasenga Basese nasenga Jumba iii Gabunga Amaso gamyuka mwenywera omwenge. Tugire tugende ewamiikwenda tweyanze ewamukweiida tweyanze ewa- iniigwanya tweyanze, tweyanze, tweyanze ewamuk- wenda tweyanze. Olyokulya ewelwakuleta Tetoterotero 1 Xanuikolantya omufumbiro mukazikitunzi Afumbye emere mbi.si namukolantya Olwokulya ewelwaniuleta. Tra.vslatiox. They do not speak. They do not know how to converse. I have eaten food. Whom am I thinking of ? I iied to the peoj)le of Mengo. They do not know how to conver.se. Those in the gardens do not know how to cultivate. He fights despising his enemies. ♦ My master, I shall never serve a bad fighter. Among the Basese I will serve Jumba and Gabunga. My eyes get red when I drink l)eer. Let us go to the Mukwenda. Let us return thanks at Mukwenda's. Let us return thanks at Mugwanya's. Let US return thanks, return thanks, return thanks at ]\Iukwenda's. Let us return thanks. It was food that brought you, Tetoterotero? "What am I to do ? The cook, the wife of Kitunzi, has cooked unripe food. ^Vhat am I to do with her 1 It was food that brought him. The following illustrations of the myths and folk-lore and beast stories of Uganda will be found of great interest. I am indebted to Mr. J. F. Cunningham for their collection : — I'ganda folk-lore is very extensive. Amongst the chiefs it is slightly tinged with Christian and Muhammadan traditions, but the following stories were taken down direct from peasants, the narrator receiving one rupee for each of them : — The Creation. Kintu was the first man, and when he came from the unknown he found nothing in Uganda— no food, no water, no animals, nothing but a blank. He had a cow with him, and when he was hungry he drank her milk. One day as he roamed about searching for something he saw two girls just dropping down from Mugulu (Heaven, or the Above). He stopped. The girls also stopped a long way otf. They were Mugulu's daughters, Nambi and her sister. The girls were much suri)rised, and Xambi said : " Sister, look at the two things over there. What can they be ? " The sister looked, but said nothing. Nambi continued : '• We never .saw anything like them before. Just go down and see what brings things like these to such a place as the earth." " How can I ? " rei)lied the sister. " Look at those horns 1 " BANTU NEGliUES 701 " Oh, I don't mean that one ; try the other." The sister then advanced a little way, and when Kintu saw her coming he also advanced to meet her, whereon the sister ran back to Nambi, and they both prepared for fiiglit. Kintu, however, did not continue the ])ursuit, but returned to the cow. After some time Nambi and her sister decided to come close to Kintu, and when a hundred ]iaces only separated them Nambi spoke to him. " Who are you ? " "I am Kintu." " And what is that," pointing to the cow. " That is my cow." Nambi and her sister withdrew to consider whether this could possibly be true. They returned directly and asked : " We have never seen anything like you before ; where did you come from ? " " I do not know." Kintu at this i)oint milked some milk on to the palm of his left hand and drank it. " What do you do that for 1 " asked Nanilii. "That's my food," replied Kintu. " We see no water here. What do you drink 1 " "I drink milk." The girls then retired for another conference, and Nambi confided to her sister that she believed this was a man ; nothing else could do such extraordinary things. They returned to Kintu and submitted their decision, and Kintu said : " Yes, I am a man." Nambi then told him all about themselves, and suggested that he should accompany them to Mugulu. Kintu agreed on condition that they also took his cow. This they declined to do, and disappeared. As soon as they arrived they told ^lugulu that they had found a man and a cow. "Where?" asked Mugulu. "On the earth." " Not a real man, surely 1 " and Mugulu smiled as if he did not lielieve them, but they suspected he knew all the time. " Oh yes, a real man. We know he is a real man because he wants food, and when he is hungry he drags the udder of his cow, and squeezes out white juice, which he drinks." " I shall make inquiries." "He is very nice," said Nambi, "and I wanted to bring him up here. May I go and fetch him ? " " Leave the matter to me," said Mugulu, and the girls withdrew. Directly they had gone Mugulu called his sons and said : " Go to the earth and test this story about a real man being there. Nambi says she saw a wild man and a cow, and that the man drank the cow's juice. Fetch the cow." The boys prepared to start at once. " Soka olinderira " (" Wait a bit "), said Mugulu ; " I don't want the man. He will probably die when he sees you ; the cow only." The boys arrived near Kintu's resting-place, and he was asleep. They took the cow and carried her off". When Kintu awoke he did not see the cow, but just then he did not start in search of her, as he supposed she had only wandered a short distance. Presently he got hungry, and tried to find the cow, but in vain. He ultimately decided that the girls must have returned and stolen her, and he was 702 BANTU NEGROES very angry and liungry. He used many \vords not of peace, and he sat down and pointed his nails and .sharpened his teeth, but there was no one with whom to fight. He then j^eeled the bark off" a tree and sucked it, and thus he fed himself. Next day Naml)i saw Kintu's cow as the boys arrived, and she exclaimed : " You have stolen Kintu's cow ! That cow was his food and drink, and now what has he to eat 1 I like Kintu, if you do not. I sliall go down to-morrow, and if he is r.ot dead I shall bring him up here," and she went and found Kintu. "So they have taken away your cow?" "Yes." " And what have you ]>een eating since ? " " I have been sucking the bark of a tree." " Did you really do that ? " "What else was there to do?" " Well, come with me to Mugulu and you shall have your cow given back to you." They went, and Kintu, when he arrived, saw a vast multitude of people and plenty of bananas and fowls and goats and sheep — in fact, everything was there in plenty. And the boys, when' they saw Nambi arrive with Kintu. said: "Let us tell our father Mugulu," and they went and told him, and Mugulu said : " Go and tell my chiefs to build a big house without a door for the stranger Kintu." The house was built, and Kintu went into it. Mugulu then gave the folloAving lavish order : " ^[y i)eople, go and cook 10,000 dishes of food, and roast 10,000 cows, and fill 10,000 vessels with beer, and give it to the stranger. If he is a real man he will eat it, if not, then — the penalty is death." The food was prepared and taken to Kintu's house. As there was no door, the crowd put their shoulders to one side of the house and raised it up off the grour.d, and put the food inside, and told Kintu that if he did not finish it all at a meal the result would be death. They dropped down the side of the house again, and waited outside. Kintu surveyed the mass of food with dismay, and then started to walk round it, muttering his feelings to himself. As he went round the heap his foot slipped into a hole, and on examination he found that it was the opening of a cavern. " Ha I ha I " said he, " this cave has a good appetite ; let me feed it," and he took the 10,0C0 measures of beer and spilled them in, laying the empty vessels on one side ; then the 10,000 carcases of roast cows were pitched into the cavern, and lastly the food from the 10,000 baskets ; and then he called to the jieople outside, after he had closed the hole : " Haven't you got a little more food out there ? " " No," they replied. " Did we not give you enough ? " "Well, I suppose I must do with it, if vou have nothing more cooked." "Have you finished it all?" "Y^es, yes. Come and take away the emjjty dishes." The crowd raised the side wall of the house, came inside, and asked Kintu whether he really had dis]josed of the food. He assured them that he had, and they with one accord cried out : " Then it is a man indeed I " And they went direct to Mugulu and told him that the stranger had finished his meal and asked for more. Mugulu at first branded this statement as a falsehood, but on consideration he believed it. He ])ondered for a moment, then taking up a copper axe he said to his chiefs : " Take this to Kintu. Tell him I want material to make a fire. Tell him that Mugulu is old and cold, and that Mugulu does not burn wood for a fire. Tell him I want stones, and tell him that he must cut up rocks with this copper axe and fetch the pieces and light me a fire. ]f he does so, then he may claim liis cow. He may also have Nambi, and he can return to the earth." BANTU NEGROES 703 The chiefs went to Kiiitu and told him that Mugulu wanted a fire made of stones, and that he must choj) a rock with the copper axe. Kintu .suspected tliere was something wrong, but he spoke no words to that effect. He ]nit the axe on his shoulder and went out before they allowed the wall to drop to the ground. He walked straight to a big rock, stood in front of it, jjlaced the head of the axe on the rock, and rested his chin on the ti]i of the handU-. " It does not seem easy to cut," said he to the axe. "It is easy enough to nie," replied the axe: "just strike and see." Kintu struck the rock, and it s])lintered in all directions. He picked up tin.- pieces of rock, and went straight to .Muiiulu and said : "Here's your firewood, Mugulu. Do you want any more ? " Mugulu said : " This is marvellous ! Go back to your house. It only remains now for you to find your cow," and Kintu went away. Next morning the chiefs were called before ]\Iugulu, and he said : " Take this bucket to Kintu, and tell him to fetch water. Tell him that Mugulu does not drink anything but dew. and if he is a man he is to fetch it quickly." Kintu received the bucket and the message, and again he suspected there was some- thing wrong, and he said words within himself, but he sjioke nothing to that effect. He took the bucket and went out, and he set it dowu on the grass, and he said to the bucket : " This does not seem very easy." The bucket replied : " It is easy enough to nie," and when Kintu looked down he saw that the bucket was full of dew. He took it to Mugulu and said : '' Here's your drinking water, Mugulu. Do you want any more 1 ' Mugulu said : " This is marvellous. Kintu, you are a prodigy. I am now .satisfied that you are a man indeed, and it only remains for you to get your cow. Whoever took Kintu's cow let him restore it." " Your own sons stole my cow," said Kintu. "If so," replied Mugulu, "drive all the cows here, and let Kintu pick out his cow if she is amongst them." Ten thousand cows were brought in a herd. (It will be remembered that Nambi and her sister assumed a fine astonishment at the " horned thing " when they first saw Kintu's cow, and yet this large herd had belonged to Mugulu all the time. It i.s, how- ever, fatal to cross-examine the story-teller, as Avill be seen later on.) Kintu stood near the herd in great perplexity, lost in thought. A hornet came and sat on Kintu's shoulder, and as Kintu gave no heed, the hornet prepared his .sting and drove it home. Kintu struck at the hornet and missed him, and the hornet said : " Don't strike. 1 ni your friend." " You have just bit me," replied Kintu. " It wasn't a bite. Listen. You can never tell your cow amongst all that herd. Just you wait until I ti\ out and sit on the shoulder of a cow. That's yours. Mavk her." The herd of 10,000 cows was driven past, but the hornet did not move, and Kintu said aloud : " My cow is not amongst them." Mugulu then ordered another herd to be brought, numbering twice as many cows as the last herd ; but the hornet did not move, and Kintu said aloud : " My cow is not among.st them." The herdsmen drove the cows away, and another herd was brought, and the hornet flew oft" and sat on the shoulder of a cow. Kintu went forward and marked her. " Thafs mine," said he to Mugulu. The hornet then flew to another, a young cow, and Kintu went forward and marked her, and said : " That also is mine." The hornet flew 701 BANTU NEGROES to a third, and Kiiitu went forward and marked this one also, and said : " That is mine also." Muguhi .said : '' Quite correct ; your cow lias had two calves since she arrived in Heaven. You are a ]irodig.v, Kintu. Take your cows, and take Nambi also, and go back to the earth. Wait a Int." Here Mugulu called his servants and said to them : "Goto my store and fetch one banana ]ilant, one potato, one bean, one Indian corn, one ground-nut, and one hen." The things were brought, and Mugulu then addressed Kintu and Nand)i : " Take these things with you ; you may want them." Then addressing Kintu he said : " I must tell you that Nambi has a brother named Warumbe (Disease or Death). He is mad and ruthless. At this moment he is not here, so you had better start quickly before he returns. If he sees you he may wish to go with you, and you are certain to (juarrel." Then to Nambi : " Here is some millet to feed the hen on the road down.* If you forget anything, don't come back to fetch it. That is all ; you may go." Kintu and Nambi started, and when they were some distance on the journey Nambi suddenly remembered that it was time to feed the hen. She asked Kintu for the millet, but it was nowhere to be found, and now it was clear they had forgotten it in the hurry of departure. " 1 shall return and fetch it," said Kintu. " No, no, you must not. Warumbe will have returned, and he will probably wish to accompany us. I don't want him, and you had better not return." " But the hen is hungry, and we must feed it." " Ye.s, it is," assented >iambi. Nambi remained where she was, and Kintu returned to Mugulu, and explained that he had forgotten the millet. ]\Iugulu was very angry at his having returned, and Warumbe, who just then arrived, asked: "Where is Nambi?" '' She is gone to the earth with Kintu." " Then I must come too," said Warumbe (literally, " Death "). After some hesitation Kintu agreed to this, and they returned together to Nambi. " Otya," said Nambi. " Otya," replied Kintu. " Hum." "Ham." "Hum." " Ham." " Hum." " Ham." Nambi then objected to Warumbe accompanying them ; but he insisted, and finally it was agreed that he should come for a time and stay with Nambi and Kintu. They all three proceeded, and reached the earth at a place called Magongo in Uganda, and they rested. Then the woman planted the banana and the Indian corn, the bean and the ground-nut, and there was a plentiful crop. In the course of time three children w^ere born, and Warumbe claimed one of them. " Let me have this one," said he to Kintu. " You have still two remaining." "Oh, I caimot spare one of these, but later on, jierhaps, I may be able to spare one." Years passed !>>•, and many more children were born, and Warumbe again begged Kintu to give him one. Kintu went round to all the children with the object of * Mugulu never omitted a detail. BANTU NEGUOES 705 selecting one for Warunibe, and lie finally returned and said : '' Warund)e, 1 cannot spare you one just yet; but later on, i>erha|ps, I may be able to do so." " When you had three you said the same thing. Now you have many, and still refuse to give me one. Mark you, I shall now kill them all. Not to-day, not to- morrow, not this year, not next year; but one by one I shall claim them all." Next day one child died, and Kintu charged Warumbe with the deed. Ne.xt day again another died, and next clay again another ; and at last Kintu proposed to return to Mugulu and tell him how Warumbe was killing all his children. Kintu accordingly Avent to Mugulu and explained matters. Mugulu replied that he had expected it. His original plan was that Kintu and Warumbe should not have met. He told him that Warumbe was a madman, and that trouble would come of it ; yet Kintu returned for the millet against the orders of ^lugulu, and this was the consequence. " However," continued Mugulu, "I shall see what can be done." And with that he called his son Kaikuzi (literally, the " Digger "), and said to him : " Go down and try to bring me back Warunabe." Kintu and Kaikuzi started off together, and when they arrived were greeted by Nambi. She explained that in his absence Warumbe had killed several more of her sons. Kaikuzi called up Warumbe, and said : " Why are you killing all these children 1 " " I wanted one child badly to help me cook my food. I begged Kintu to give me one. He refused. Now I shall kill them every one." " Mugulu is angry, and he sent me down to recall you." " I decline to leave here." "You are only a small man in comparison to me. I shall fetch you by force." With this they grappled, and a severe contest ensued. After a while Warunibe slipped from Kaikuzi's grasp, and ran into a hole in the ground. Kaikuzi started to dig him out with his fingers, and succeeded in reaching him, but Warumbe dived still deei)er into the earth. Kaikuzi tried to dig him out again, and had almost caught him when Warumbe sunk still further into the ground. " I'm tired now," said Kaikuzi to Kintu, " I will remain a few days, and have another try to catch him." Kaikuzi then issued an order that there was to be two days' silence in the earth, and that Warumbe would come out of the ground to see what it meant. The peo])le were ordered to lay in two days' provisions, and firewood and water, and not to go out of doors to feed goats or cattle. This having been done, Kaikuzi went into the ground to catch Warumbe, and pursued him for two days, and he forced Warunibe out at a place called Tanda. At this place there were some children feeding goats, and when they saw Warumbe they cried out, and the spell was broken, and Warumbe returned again into the earth. Directly afterwards Kaikuzi ajppeared at the same place and asked why the children had broken the silence. He was angry and disappointed, and he said to Kintu that the people had broken his order, and that he would concern himself no further with the recalling of AVarumbe. " I am tired now," said Kaikuzi. " Never mind him," replied Kintu, " let Warumbe remain since you^ cannot expel him. You may now go back to Mugulu, and 'webale'" ('-thank you"). Kaikuzi returned to Mugulu, and explained the Avhole circumstances. " Very Avell," said Mugulu, " let Warumbe stop there." And Warumbe remained. 70() BANTU NEGROES A Sportsman. Mjiube was a sportsman. As he sat in his luit he saw a man aijju-oaching with Avhom he had agreed to go i-atting. Mpolje called his dog, tied a bell to his neck, and led him with a sling to where the rats were supposed to be. Some beaters went on ahead and set up nets, but uo rats were found. The beaters then asked Mjiobe to let his dog run loose in the grass, and he immediately put up a rat, and it ran .straight for the nets, but the mesh was too large and the rat got through and away. The beaters then went home, but Mpobe decided to go on still farther, as he did not wish to return empty-handed. Soon after he started a rat, and it ran into a cave. The dog followed it, and Mpobe followed the dog. They went a long way, and ultimately Mpobe came to an open space, where there were many people, and houses and gardens, and he said to them : " ]\[y friends, did you see a dog following any rats about here ? " "Yes, we have," they replied, "but they have jiassed on lower down." " In what direction ? " " Towards Mangao." Mpobe foUow^ed on, and came to a seat where a Big Man sat, with rats on one side and Mpobe's dog on the other. " Where do you come from ? " asked the Big Man. " From my garden just above. I have simply followed my dog. I heard his bell, and came on here." '' Do you know- where you are now 1 " " No, not in the least' " Lucky for you. Now go back to >our home, and remember that you must tell no one where you have been or what you have seen. Not even your father, or mother, or brother. If you tell, then I will come along and kill you. Here are your rats, and here is your dog." "Webale," said Mpobe (i.e., "Thank you"), and he went home. Directly Mpobe arrived his wife got him food and said how glad she was that he had returned. She asked a great many questions, all of which he answered, and she waited thinking he would volunteer a statement as to where he had been. " Where have you been these two days 1 " at last asked the wife. "Oh, I have just been ratting in the forest." "And ?" queried the wife. "That's all," replied the si^ortsman. The wife kncAv there was something else untold, so she invited Mpobe's father to the house. The father cross-questioned Mpobe as to where he had been, and what he had eaten and whom he had seen, and what he did during every hour of the two days he was absent ; but still Mpolje kept his secret. The wife next invited Mpobe's mother to the house, and the mother began another series of questions, and so involved Mpobe that he had to own up. "I can't tell you it all, or the Big ^Man will come and kill me, and you would go and tell some one else." "You don't know me, my son. I never tell anything. Just tell me the whole affair," and he told it. She merely thought it right to tell his wife, and the wife told her mother, and the mother told her husband, and so on until evening, when M]i(ibe went to bed, and just as he was falling asleep a stern, gruff voice called: " .Mpobe, Mpobe I " " Kabaka," replied Mpobe. (When a man is called by his name, he always replies " Kabaka," or "king." If a Muhannnadan were walking along, and he knocked his toe BANTU NEGROES 707 against a stone, he would cry out " jMuhammad " ; but if a Muganda met witli an accident, he would cry out instantly " Kabaka.") " So you have told the secret," said the Big Man ; for it was he. " I have only told my mother." " That's enough. Eat up all your food and property, and as soon as it is finished I will come and kill you." " ^lay I sell my son to buy a cow 1 " "\es." Mpobe bought the cow, killed her, salted the meat, and began to eat it, but in very, very small pieces each day. At the end of a year the Big Man returned and called out : " Mpobe, Mpobe ! " "Kabaka."' " Have you eaten that cow ? " " No, not yet." '' Well, hurry up. I am coming along when it is quite finished." The cow was ultimately finished, and Mpobe i-an off to a dense forest and hid himself. As he lay asleep he heard the same call : " Mpobe, Mpobe I " " Kabaka." "Have you finished that cow yet?" "Not quite. I have just a little left." "Ha, haha ! You are hiding here; but there is no escape from me. I am coming along directly." Mpobe left the forest and hid himself in caves, again lay doAvn in rivers, went into i)its and caverns ; but wherever he went the Big Man found him out and called him. At last Mpobe saw it Avas no use trying to dodge hin), and he said : '• Let him come now, I hide no more. The cow is finished. I should not have told the secret, and I am ready to die." Next night the Big ]Man came, and Mpobe was seen no more. Kawekwa and Nakawekwa. A man once lived at Ganga, near Kampala, and he had a son who never ate any food. The son's name was Kawekwa. Another man, on the other side of Ganga,. had a daughter who never ate food. Her name was Nakawekwa. One day Kawekwa heard this, and said he should like to see the girl. The girl on the same day heard the story of the boy who did not require any food, and she said she should like to see him. Kawekwa travelled round the district and came to the girl's house. He found her at homo, and he said : " Otya." She replied : " Otyano," and asked him into the house. She did not know who he was, but she went to the banana ganlen and pulled some fruit, and Avhen it was ready she offered it to him, and he declined, saying that he never ate food. He then asked her to eat it herself, and she said she never ate food. And in this way they guessed who each of them was. Then her parents came in and the usual ceremony was gone through, and the marriage was completed. When the bride was brought home her father came to visit her, and fooil was prepared. Everything was ready but beer, and Kawekwa proposed to go to the village to buy some ; but his bride persuaded him not to go, as she feared some- thing would happen to him. He did not go, and he remained at home many days. One evening he heard drums beating in the village, and he heard the dancers 708 BANTU NEGROES singing, and he insisted on going, promising that he wonld not be long. He went, and a fight arose, and Kawekwa was speared and killed. When the news was l)ronght to hi.s wife she we))t for many months and refused to be consoled. One night as she was crying in her hut Kawekwa returned from death and asked her : *'AVhy do yon weep so long and bitterly?" " Because 1 loved you so much," she replied. " Then if you loved me so much, will you come with me now ? " " Yes, yes ; I'll come," and she died. It has now become a kind of proverb in T^ganda : " Tokabye okuzukiza Kawekwa wa danga" — that is, "You cry as if you wished to wake Kawekwa of (ianga." The Goat-Herd and the Leopard. A Muganda chief had many goats, and one slave boy, named Sikilya Munaku, to look after them. One night a leopard came and killed all the goats except one, and the chief was angry, and blamed the boy for not herding them more carefully. " You see," said the chief, " there is only one left now. If you allow the leopard to catch that one, I will cast you out and throw you to the leopard yourself." Sikilya ]Munaku was very careful of how he watched the goat ; he went with it to feed every morning, stayed with it all day, returned home with it in the evening, and took it into his house till the morning. He guarded it thus for many days. At length the grass near his but was eaten bare, and he led the goat to the border of the forest, and tied it to a post where there was rich grass. Towards sunset a leopard came to the edge of the jungle and looked out. "Go away," said the boy; but the leopard merely crouched down. "Go away," re])eated the boy, "if you eat this goat my master Avill kill me, so go away." The leopard sprang out and seized the goat by the neck, and the boy seized it by the legs, and they tugged for some time. At length the leopard dragged both the boy and goat into the forest. Then they saw that the goat was dead, and they sat down to rest, the leopard on one side of the carcase, and the boy on the other. " What did you mean by di-agging it 1 " said the leopard. " What did i/ou mean by dragging it 1 " retorted the boy. " Are you not afraid that I may eat you ? " " No, I am not afraid any more. If I return to my master he will kill me now that you have stolen his last goat." " Kill you, will he 1 Y^ou need not bother about him. For the future you will remain with me in the forest, so set to work and build a hut." The leopard sat still over the goat whilst the lioy l.iuilt a hut, and then he asked the boy : " Are you hungry 1 " "Eh, Sebo" ("Yes, sir"). " Well, we must get a fire. Creep out to a neighbouring garden, and bring me a stick from the half-smouldering fire near the village." The boy did so, and came back. "Have you got the firebrand.^" asked the leopard, when the boy came in view. "Eh, Sebo." "Hurry up and make a fire, and I will give you a piece of the goat to roast." ^\'hen the meat was cooked the boy ate it, and he told the leopard thf.t it was very good. He was so pleased that he thought it only fair to do a good turn to the leopard. The boy knew a certain ant-heap near the Gabunga's garden where there w^ere"Nswa" (edible ants) to be found. Nobody else knew of this particular BANTU NEGROES 701) heap, but in his gratitude tlie boy decided to tell the leopard so that he might have a share. "As a return for all this kindness," began the boy, "I will tell you some- thing." " If it is about guns or spears, don't tell me. I am always angry when 1 hear of guns." " No, it is about food " (" Enieri "). "Ah, food; yes, tell me quick, quick, quick." "There is an ant-heap near Gabunga's garden, and " " What ? Is there a goat there ? " "No, not a goat, but " " A sheep, then ? " " No, but " "Perhaps a dog, or a calf, or an antelope, or a " " No," said the boy, " but ' Nswa ' " (white ants). At this the leopard fainted with sheer rage. " White ants 1 " said he. " White ants 1 Obusa, bisasiro, vunda, gaga " (The interpreter here stopi)ed the story-teller, and explained that these were very vulgai' words, and even a leopard would not have used them, but that he had ^one mad.) The leojiard went out and l>rought in a stone. Then he put it down l>y the fire, and said to the boy : " I have something nice to tell you." " Have you ? " replied the boy. " Then tell me quick." " It is about food." " Then tell me quick." "It is delicious," continued the leopard, and he licked his lips and smiled. " Oh ! " gasped the boy, " where is it ? " " Here it is," said the leopard, and he handed him the stone. The l)oy angered much, and they spoke no more. After a while the leopard remembered that he had promised to reconnoitre Kamswaga's village that night, and started out. " Weraba," said he to the boy, and he Avas gone. After a minute he returned and said : " Otya," and then, addressing the boy, said : " To-morrow morning you might take a piece of meat, and go round to some of the gardens near the village, and barter it for a cooking pot." " All right," answered the boy, and the leopard went away. Next morning he accordingly took a piece of meat, and went to a garden and found a woman hoeing. He held up the meat, and the woman asked him what he wanted. "I am trying to barter this foi a i)ot.' "Bring it here," said the woman. He brought it, and when the woman smelt it she said it was good. She then called to two girls who were in an adjoining garden, and they came to where .she stood. " What a nice boy ! " said one of the girls. " Do you like him ? " asked the mother. " Yes." "Go fii'st and fetch a pot to exchange for the meat." "Oh, go for the pot yourself, mother. I want to ask him where he lives." The mother went to fetch the pot, and the girl askedi: " Where do you live ?" " I have a hut in the forest." " W^hat is your name 1 " " Sikilva Munaku." 710 BANTU NEGROES " I must pay you a visit. Xo, listen. Come back here to-morrow, and I will marry you.'' "Very well," replied the boy. The mother returned with the pot, and the exchange was made. The boy returned to his hut, and i)ut the pot inside. *' What did you say to the boy while 1 was away ? "' asked the mother, when she was alone with her daughter. "Oh, I told him on no account to propose to me —that if he did, I should certainly refuse him." "What did he say?" " He said, ' What a charming woman your mother is ! ' " "He did, did he? I hope you asked him to come back. to-morrow." " He said he was coming to-morrow," and the conversation came to an end. The boy, as he sat outside his hut, heard a chomping and chewing going on inside, so he guessed the leopard had returned. He went inside, and the leopard said : " I see you have bought the pot." " I have something nice to tell you," said the boy, thinking of the girl's proposal in the garden. " Don't, don't, and ' webale ' " (" thank you ") said the leopard. He thought the boy referred to the white ants again. " They were so nice and kind," said the boy, " I must tell you about them." " Not whilst I live," said the leopard, and again he uttered abusive words, meant for the white ants. " I was talking to them just now, and one of them said " " Have they learned to talk, then 1 " " Of course they have. One of them said she would marry me to-morrow. Her mother sold me the pot." " Oh, I thought you were talking of the white ants." " I guessed you misunderstood." " Listen, I have something nice to tell you,'' said the leopard. " I know it, you are going to tell me about that stone again." " No," said the leopard. " Look at this." And he dragged out another goat from a corner. " That is Kamswaga's best," said he. " Look at his horns, and see the size of his head, I found him easily enough. He was wandering round, wanting to fight, when I seized his neck and dragged him here. Take off his skin, and in the morning take some of his flesh and go again to the women and buy some bananas to make beer." Next day the slave boy visited the garden, bought the bananas, and the girl came home with him. The leopard returned late that night, and he was a little uneasy when he heard voices in the hut. When the boy explained that it was a wife, he came in, and a long talk followed, in which he advised Sikilya Munaku and his wife to go next day out in the open country, build a reed house, and make a plot of tillage. This was done, and as the soil was rich, a plentiful crop was the result. Other people, on seeing the good crop, came and asked permission to build and cultivate adjoining plots, and in course of time there were many people, and Sikilya ^NIunAku was recognised as " Mwami " (chief). Home time after this the leo]iard paid a visit to the chief, and ordered him to make a feast and have a beer dance. He added that he was to call in the people of the whole village, and that they were to remain all night in the chief's house : the other houses of the village were to be closed, and the doors tied with rope, and no one Avas to enter thcni for that night. The dance proceeded, and at midnight one man, who Avas tipsy, left the chief's house, BANTU NEGROES 711 and went to a house in the village. He cut the rope and went in, and was .suriiri>ed to see the house full of leopards. The man raised his spear and threw it at the higgest, shouting: "Have that for the Kalxaka ' (" king '). The big leopard rolled over and died. The tipsy man then returned and told the chief that he had killed a leopard. The chief told him he had done wrong ; that the leojjard was his good friend ; had cared for him like a father ; and that the man might just as well have killed him (the chief) as the leopard. The dance broke up and the ]ieople retired. Directly after, the leojjard, who had visen from the dead, came and charged the chief with having disol)eyed him. '" 1 found you a worthless slave boy, too small to eat, too weak to kill, and with a master who had threatened to destroy you. 1 cared for you, and ultimately made you chief, and now one of your people has speared me. I am done with you for ever. Go back to your old master and be a slave boy again.' Having said this, the leopard spat on the ground, thrashed madly all round the !iut, and, with a bitter snarl, left the house. Then a great .storm came up from Sese and knocked down the house. Tl.e villagers stole the bananas ; the goats and sheep and cows ran away, and his wife and children also ran away, and when morning came there was nothing left but Sikilya .Mun;iku all by himself I The Hake and the Elephant. A hare and an elephant went to a "ntujo" (drum dance), and the hare stood still whilst the elephant danced. When it was over the hare said: "Mr. Elei)hant, I can't say I admire your dancing ; there seems to be too much of you, and the riesli on your buttocks goes flop, flop, flop. Let me cut oti" a few slices, and then try. You will then dance as well as I do." The hare then cut off some huge slices and went home. The elepliant also went home, but he was in agony. At length he called a buffalo, and said : '' Go to the hare, and ask him to return my slices.'' The buffalo went, and was received by the hare, and told his message. "Were the slices not eaten on the road?'' asked the hare. '■ I heard they were," replied the buffalo. Then the hare cooked some meat (it was really the slices of elephant) and ^ave some to the buffalo. The buffalo thought it xQvy tender, and asked where he got it. '■ I got it at the hill Bikongoliro, not far from here, where I go occasionally to hunt. Come hunting with me to-day." So they went to hnnt, and taking some nets set them up. The hare then gave the following instructions to the buffalo : "You remain here whilst I go into the grass. If you hear something come buzzing ' zoooooooooooooo ' hang down your head." The buffalo waited, and then he heard " zoooooooooooooo " and hung down his head, and the hare struck the head, and the buffalo diech The hare skinned him. and carried home the meat. As the buffalo did not return, the ele])hant sent an antelope to ask the hare to return his slices, but the hare disposed of him in the same way as in the case of the buffalo, and carried home his meat. The elephant sent a succession of me.'tsengers for the slices, but not one of them returned, with them or without them. The elephant then called uj) a leopard, and said: "Go to Mr. Hare, and ask him VOL. 11. 16 71 L> BANTU NEGROES to return my slices. You are a strong messenger. Fetch both the hare and my slices. I am very sore, and you must return quickly if you wish to see me alive." The leo])ard found the hare at home, and after the usual feed of meat they started to hunt at Mount Bikongoliro, taking their nets. " Now," said the hare, " you wait here whilst I go into the grass. If you hear something come buzzing like ' zoooooooooooooo ' hang down your head." The hare then went into the grass, and jiresently the leopard heard a buzzing " zoooooooooooooo," but instead of hanging down his head he held it up, and a big stone just missed him. Then he stooped his head and pretended he was dead. He chuckled to himself : " Ha ! ha ! ^Iv. Hare, so you meant to kill me with that stone ? I see now what happened to the other messengers. The wretch killed them all Avith his ' zoooooooooooooo.' Never mind, Mr. Hare, just Avait till " The hare emerged from the grass, and when he saw the leopard lying prone he laughed and jumped, and then scraped the ground. "There goes another messenger," said he. " The elephant wants his slices back. Well, let him want them. He has still got too many, but in any case those I cut off improved him a good deal, and now as they are all eaten up I cannot very well return them." The hare then gathered some grass and pieces of string, and made the leopard into a bundle, ready to carry him off. "I should like to skin him just here," said the hare, "if 1 had my knife. As it is, I must carry hin^ a little way, then hide him in the forest, and run home and bring my knife.'' Having said this, he hoisted the leopard on his head and walked off with him. The leopard Avas enjoying the ride on the hare's head, and after having gone a little way he put forth his paw and gave the hare a deep scratch. He then withdrew his paw, and lay quite still. The hare at once ]rat down the bundle, and understood how matters lay. He did not pretend that he kneAv, for he said : " Oh, there .seems to have been a thorn in the bundle." He then roped the bundle very firmly, taking care to tie the paAvs strongly, and then, putting tlie bundle on his head, went along to a stretch of forest. He placed the leopard in the Avood, and Avent off to fetch his knife. Immediately he had gone the leopard tore open the bundle, and sat up to Avait for the hare's return. " I'll shoAV him hoAv to hunt, and to .say 'zoooooooooooooo' and to hold doAvn his head. 171 shoAv him how to cut slices off my friend the elephant " He raised his head, and there Avas the hare in view, returning Avith a knife ; but on seeing the leopard alive he bolted, and ran into a hole in the ground, Avliere the leopard could not folloAV him. '' Come out," said the leoi)ard, snitting vainly at the hole. '■ Come in," said the hare. The leopard saw it Avas useless trying to coax the bare to come out, so he said to a crow that sat on a branch just above the hole : " Mr. Crow, Avill you Avatch this hole Avhilst I run for some fire to burn the hare out?" " Yes,' replied the croAV, " but don't be long aAvay, as I have to go to my nest at Wakoli's this evening." The leoi)ard Avent for the fire, and the hare, having heard that the croAv Avas keei>ing Avatch, said : " You are very hungry, croAv, I am certain —eh 'I " " Ye.s, very," rei)lied the crow. "Are you fond of Avhite ants, for, if yon are, I have a lot of them down here T "Throw me some up, and 'Avcliale' " ("thank you"). '■ Come near the hole, and I Avill." The crow came near. " Xow nppii your eyes and month wide," .said the hare. BANTU NEGROES 71.3 The crow oitened his eyes and mouth, and just tlien the hare Hung a lot of dust into them, and whilst the crow tried to remove the dust the hare ran away. "What shall I do now?" said the crow, when he had finished taking the dust out of his eyes. "The leopard will be angry when he finds the hare gone, and I am sure to catch it. Ha ! ha I I have it. I will gather some ' ntengo ' (poisoi.ous fruit of one of the Solanacece, about the size of a jtotato apjile) and put them into the hare's burrow-hole. ^Yhen the leopard applies fire to the hole the ' ntengo ' will explode, and the leopard will think the hare has burst and died." The crow accordingly placed several " ntengo "' in the hole, and after some time the leopard arrived. " Have you still got him inside ? " he asked. '• Yes, sir." " Has he been saying anything ? " " Not a word." " Xow then, hare," said the leopard, "when you hear ' zoooooooooooooo,' hold down your head. Do you hear 1 " Xo reply. "You killed all the elephant's messengers, just as you tried to kill me to-day; l)at it is all finished now with you. When I say 'zoooooooooooooo' hang down your head. Ha I ha I " But the hare meantime was at home, making a hearty meal otf the remainder of the elejdaant steaks. The district which bounds Uganda on the east is called Baso(ja. The boundary is a very definite one ; it is the course of the Victoria Nile from Lake Victoria northwards to the great marshes and backwaters of of Kioga. According to native tradition this country was formerly inhabited by Nilotic Negi'oes of the Lango tribe, and also of the interesting p]lgumi race — the Elgumi being more allied in language and physique to the Masai. In the extreme east of Busoga also there had taken refuge remnants of one of the earliest of Bantu invasions of Negro Nileland— the Masaba people— a few thousands of whom still dwell on the western flanks and foot-hills of .Alount Elgon. Into this country— the lakeward portions of which were but thinly inhalnted liecause of the density of the forests- there broke some hundreds of years ago an invasion of Uganda people, or at any rate of Negroes from the direction of Uganda who spoke a dialect of the Luganda language. These— after mingling with the Lango and Elgumi, and absorbing, perhaps, a dwarfish element akin to the modern Masal^a- were the ancestors of the modern Basoga. People of the same general stock and speaking the same dialect also occupied the large island of Buvuma and all the islands along the nortli coast of the Victoria Nyanza from the vicinity of Uganda to opposite the Samia Hills. It is a point of some interest also to remark that the dialect of Kusoga (Lusoga) is more like the speech of the Sese Islands than that of Uganda. Both the Basese and Basoga speak a language which is almost closer to Luganda 71i BANTU NEGROES than Lowland Scots is to English, hut. like the Scots dialect of English, it is rather more ]>riniitive and contains words of an older type. In many respi^cts the Basoga resemble the Baganda so closely in phvsiqne. manners, and customs that in describing the latter I shall consider that I have at the same time described the Basoga, with the <'xcei»tion of such differences or special characteristics as are now pointed out. The Bantu-speaking inhabitants of the Busoga District represent a population of, perhaps, 500,000. Tlieir country is in many places densely forested, in marked contrast to the lands of Kavirondo, which bound it on the east. The natives count in their forests no less tlian fifty-two good timber trees ; at least seven trees which produce bark-cloth, and three trees and two lianas, or creepers, yielding rubber. In the north-eastern part of the administrative District of Busoga the Bantu-speaking people are more akin to the Banyoro than to the Baganda. This Unyoro infusion resulted in much of Busoga coming under the influence of the Hima sovereigns of Unyoro ; and for many years Busoga v.as alternately harried by Unvoro and Uganda, each country seeking to assert its riglit to the overlordship. Gradually Uganda became the paramount jxjwer, but the Uganda chiefs so misused their privileges that when the political organisation of the whole of the Protectorate was under re\iew it was decided to exclude the District of Busoga from tlie territories allotted to the Kingdom of Uganda, especially as com^jensation was given to Uganda in other directions. The prestige of the Gala aristocracy of Unyoro. however, lingered down almost to the present time, and whenever old chiefs died, and new chiefs succeeded, efforts were always made to obtain the investiture of the latter from the King of Unyoro. There has never been any supreme ruler over Busoga, the country ha\ing been divided in times past among a number of more or less powerful chiefs, some of whom were Lusoga-speaking, others in the north belonging to Unyoro and Lango stock. The Busoga Juits are far inferior to the houses of Uganda, and offer much less resemblance to them in architecture tlian do those of Unyoro and Toro. The hut of the Basoga is usually a beehive dwelling, where the thatched roof comes right down to the ground, leaving an opening about three feet high as a doorway. Not even the chiefs' houses are much better. The men are the hut-liuilders, the women being given up to agricultural pursuits. The huts contain no liedstead or raised platform as a sleeping place. The Basoga simply pile up bark-cloths until a rough couch is made. The ])easants in the country either sleep on the bare floor or else arrange their bodies for sleep on the transverse poles of a short, broad ladder. They sleep on these poles with apparent ease, though in a cramped position, the heels and haunches resting on the lowest rung BANTU NEGROES 71 the back of the head on the third rung, while the second bar serves as a support to the back. The articles of diet of the liasoga are slightly more varied than amongst the Baganda, In addition to the banana, which is the favourite food of those who dwell anywhere near the Victoria Nyanza, the country grows the siveet potato, groand- oiut, two or three kinds of beans, eleusine, and sorghum. The grain of the sorghum and eleusine cereals is principally used for making beer. Tobacco is grown of excellent quality. The sugar- cane is cultivated, and its stalks are used for the sake of its sweet juice, but no sugar is made from it. The people also grow a few yams and some sesamum, or oil-seed. They gather cojfee from the wild bushes in the forest, and in parts of the coimtry the cotton-plant is cultivated, though I have not been able to ascertain that they spin this into thread. As domestic animals they keep cattle of the humped, short- horned type, small f;\t-tailed sheep, goats, and fowls. The goat seen in Busoga is often of the long-haired, " Skye-terrier " type, already mentioned as coming from the regions to the west of the Upi^er Nile. The natives nowadays catch and tame the young of the grey parrot for sale to European or Swahili caravans. The peo}tle keep dogs, and some- times use them for hunting. There is nothing remarkable about their marriage ceremonies. The wife is simply purchased from her father by a present of live-stock, together with a few iron hoes, and i)erhaps two or three pots of beer. Amongst the })easants a wife may be purchased for a goat. When a chief dies his grave is dug in his own house, and his lti)dy 3°^ Tie. BANTU XEGllOES is laid ill il wrapped up in liark-cloth. Jlcrc the cor|)se lies for ti\'e or six davs. until a lari;e (piantitv of" liai'k-elot Ii can lie collected from his relations and adherenls. and Avitli this the grave is generally filled np to the surface. On the top of the liark-cloth earth is thrown, leaving the grave at last with a raised cover of lieaten clay. The chief's women live m the honse nntil the grave is complete. They then leave, and the hut is shut up, and remains without any interference until eventually it falls to ])ieces over the grave. "When an ordinary peasant dies, he or she is generally buried in front of the dwelling inhaliited during life. In former davs. before European influence changed any of the customs of the couutrv. when the chief of ]^ukole ((me of the sub-divisions of Eusoga) died, his successor (generally his brother) despatched a large number of warriors to range the country for miles round the chief's village and slay any person they met. During these raids every attem})t was made to capture a young man and a girl. On the second day after the chiefs death this couple was killed, their pudenda were removed, and. together with those of a bull, were put into the interior of a large fetish drum called - Kideye.*' The hole in the drum through which this disgusting tribute liad been inserted was sewn up, and the drum was beaten to announce the chief's death. An embassy carrying news of the death was sent to Unyoro.* and the embassy further carried with it, for the information of the king of Unyoro, the name of the chief's successor. The king of Unyoro then sent his representatives to confirm the appoint- ment of a new chief, and to give him a stool of authority and two spears. When the new chief of Bukole had been formally installed, he again sent out men to kill any one whom they might find ; and if no victims could be discovered and despatched, the force went on to fight against some neighbouring chief. Until lilood had been shed in this manner the new chief and his subjects were expected to keep their heads shaved. Any one infringing the order to shave the head was immediately put to death. \Mien blood had been shed, then all the people were invited to come and mourn for the deceased chief. The days of mourning sometimes lasted for two months, and most seriously interrupted the work of the peasants in the fields. All this time the messengers from the king of Unyoro remained in Bukole luitil they had received suflRciently large presents to l)e taken back to Unvoro. These practices only ceased when Kabarega. the king of Unyoro, was driven out of his country by the British forces. They occurred with otlnn- chiefs of other sub-di\isions of I'usoga. It may he imagined, therefore, that the people, in this * This incident shows the continued reverence for, and dependence on, the ihiniitii- lulris of Unyoro, whicli long survived the time when in all the southern and wcsteiii jmrts of ]>uso,na U.uanda was the dominant ))ower. BANTU NEGROES 717 respect at any rate, have greatly gained l)y the institution of a European control over the admini- stration of their counti-y ; for and necks ropes made of giceii oreej ers and heaves. Arrived at tlie base of the tree they coinnient-ed to dance with figures not unlike tliose of a <|uadrine. the dancing being accompanied by songs only. No (h-unis or other instruments were played. After dancing for a certain time they stoppt^cL and a httle girl was brought forward, about ten years old. This child was laid out at the base of the ti(^(^ as though she was to be i^acrificed. and every detail of the sacritict^ was gone through in inock fashion. A slight incision was made in the child's neck, Imt not such as to seriously hurt her. She was then caught up and thrown into the water •of the lake close at hand. Here a man was standing ready to save hei- from being drowned. The girl on whom this ceremony was performed was, my informant learnt, dedicated hy native custom to a life of perpetual virginity. The Basoga regard with a certain degree of superstitious reverence white bulls with black spots. These are regarded as sacred cattle, and are allowed to wander at will about the plantations. Christianity is now making some progress in the western part ol' Busoga. Muhammadanism has but few adherents. Nevertheless, Islam, coming from the Nile and from Zanzibar, has made several attempts at proselytism in Busoga. The great idea of the Sudanese mutineers was to ■create a ]Muhammadan kingdom in Busoga in case I'ganda should prove too liard a nut to crack. They would hereafter have established a •connection between the ]Muhammadans on the U[)per Nile and those who (would then have) commanded the northern shores of tlie A^ictoria Nyanza. The Basoga liave suffered terribly of late years from occasional famines and epidemics of disease. The famines have been due to unusual droughts which have afflicted a country ordinarily blessed with fifty to seventy inches of annual rain. The heavy rainfall however, is, much confined to the vicinity of the lake shores, and at distances of forty or fifty miles from the coast of tlie A'ictoria Nyanza the dense forest yields to a prairie country where the sun's rays are very scorching. The least decrease in the rainfall below fifty inches is prejudicial to the bearing of the banana, and as the Basoga. like the Baganda, rely too much on this easily produced food, when the banana fails they have not sufficient staple in other produce to fall back on. But the race is being saved, and the ravages of disease and famine made good in some districts, by a few notable chiefs who are marvellous getters of children. The great chief Luba. who resides near Fort Thruston, and who was the unwilling in>tnnnen< in the nuu-der of Bisho}) Hannington. is still a vigorous man of jjerhaps sixty, and has had more than a hundred BANTU NEGKOES '21 stalwart sons, each of whom has Ix'coinc the father of a lar^c faiiiilv ; .-o that Luba, when he dies, will i)roba])ly be the proi(enitor of a thousand children. Another old chief of Nilotic race in the nortii. J^iada, is now past ninety, and is said to have been the father of a thousand children, more or less. It has been, in fact, very much the custom in Jjuscxm for the chiefs — who, being at all times well nourished, were well suited to be "sires" — to im})ress all the young women of the district into their harims. After a girl had borne one or two children the chief would marry her off to his dependents or to his elder sons. Among the peasants infant mortality is terrible. It is rare that a peasant woman succeeds in rearing more than one child. The influence of the two missionary societies in Busoga is restraining the excessive polygamy of the chiefs, and the better conditions of life among the common jjeople which now pre\ail under the European control of the country, are together equalising the production of children, and will no doulit tend in time to a marked increase in the population. AN AI-i;IMi CIIII.I' IX M'soi^A CHAPTER XVIT BANTU NEGBOES- (contlmied) (3) Kavirondo, Masaba, etc. THE Bantii-s}ieaking Negroes to the east of Busoga, who dwell round the north-eastern corner of the Victoria Nyanza, on the western flanks of ^Nlount Elgon, and on and near the east coast of the Victoria Nvanza, south of Kavirondo Bay, may perhaps be most conveniently grouped together under the general term of '• Kavirondo."' This word has a Bantu sound, but no one has yet been able to throw any light on its origin, or exactly to indicate the sjjecial patch of country that it covers. The natives use it (generally pronounced as '' Kafirondo "), but perhaps only do so because they have picked it up from Swahili caravans and Europeans. The word " Kavirondo " probably appeared first on the maps drawn by Mr. E. (x. Eavenstein at the end of the 'seventies from information given to him by Mombasa missionaries, such as the late Mr. Wakefield. It is certain that the Swahili and Arab caravans who first reached the north-east coast of Lake A'ictoria Nyanza came back with the impression that the people in that direction were styled " Kavirondo," and communicated these views to ^Ir. Wakefield. But as the few words of Kavirondo which ^ir. Wakefield was able to quote from these and other sources showed the dialect to be closely related to the Acholi — a Nilotic language — it was considered that the Kavirondo were a Nilotic people, and so in a sense they are ; for about half the so-called Kavirondo country is inhabited by a race which is closely allied to the Aluru and Lango (Acholi), from which they are only separated by about 100 miles of Bantu and ^Masai-speaking * people. But Joseph Thomson, when he reached the north-east corner of the Victoria Nyanza in 1883, the first of all Europeans to do so by way of Masailand, discovered to his surprise that the northern Kavirondo spoke a language that was obviously Bantu, and was easily understood by his Swahili }iorters. On the whole, it is best to accept the establislicd word ■• Kavirondo," and to take it to * This refers to the Elgunii, whose language is more related to the Masai group than to the Nilotic family. 383. A WOMAN' OF THK 11i>>;a T1;II;I:, MASAliA, NOHTH-WKST Kl.ilON 7iM J5AXTU NEGJIOES include all llic tiilio spcakiny nearlv alli('(l I'aiitii dialects between the north-west corner o{ Mount Elu^on on tiie north and the (iermau frontier on tlie east coast of J^ake Victoria Nyanza on the south. As will Ije pointed out in (he next chapter, the best general name for the JSilotic peo[)le who dwell in a ])art of the Kavirondo country is that suggested by Mr. Hobley — " Ja-luo." The dialects (divided into three distinct groups) spoken by the people whom I group together as Kavirondo are not only Bantu, but are in some respects more archaic even than Luganda and Urunyoro. The group of dialects spoken by the degraded and simian-like Xegroes on the western flanks of Mount Elgon may jjcrhaps claim to be the nearest living approach to the original Eantu mother-tongue, though the Lukonjo of Euwenzori, Luganda, and Eunyoro come very near to the same exalted position. The ^lasaba * people' of West p]lgon, who speak this extremely archaic Bantu language, represent a little enclave of Bantu-speaking people (the Bapobo, Bangoko, Bakonde, Bagesu, Basokwia, and Bosia), surrounded by tribes of a totally ditiereut physique and language, though their Kavirondo brethren to the south are not more than thirty or forty miles distant. They are perhaps the wildest jieople to he found anywhere within the limits of the Uganda Protectorate. They are wilder even than the Congo Dwarfs. Quite recently they were brought under subjection to some extent by an Uganda chief wlio was emjjloyed to restore order in the country between the Victoria Nile and Elgon. l)ut even still there remains a section of this people dwelling high up (at altitudes, perhaps, of 7,000 and 8.000 feet) on the ridges surrounding the ceiitral crater of p]lgon wliich in all probability has never seen a European, and who W(iuld display hostility towards him or any other stranger who came within its reach. Directly the present 'writer saw these Masaba folk he was struck with the low and apish appearance that many of them presented. Here and there one distinguished amongst them the square-headed, better-looking type of Xandi physiognomy, due, no doubt, to refugees from Nandi-speaking countries having settled among these savages ; but ordinarily the ]Masaba peo}tle bear a strong resemblance to the Pygmy-Prognathous group on the western limits of Uganda. h'ome who were seen, but who unfortunately could not be photographed, gave considerable justification to the employment of the term "ape-like men." They had strongly projecting superciliary arches, low brows, flat noses, long upper lips, and receding chins — stumpy individuals irresistilily recalling the Congo Dwarfs, having the same flat noses, bulging nostrils, and long upper lips. There was nothing about these * Tla-y |- KI.coX a superior Nandi or Elgumi type ; an aboriginal race, in fact, on vvhicli many centuries ago the first Bantu invaders impressed an archaic Bantu dialect. A comparison of the heads in Figs. 257 and 384 with the heads of Bantu Kavirondo. Nile Negroes, or Baganda will show at once what a low physical type l'2i\ BAXTU NEGKOES may he fi)Uii(l on .Mimnt Elg-oii. In these Masaha people the face is very liroad ill its zygomatic measurement — that is to hiay, from the edge of one <'heek-bone to the other. The cranial development is relatively poor. There is much })rognathism. a large up}»er lip. and retreating chin. The hands are long, the feet are large and clumsy. The knees turn in, and the shins are much bowed. In the men there is a certain amount of scrubby hair about tiie fac(\ but I did not notice in any exam])le the body-hair which is so evident in the Congo Dwarfs. The colour of their skins ranges from dark <'liocolate to yellowish brown. The legs, however, are not disproportionately short, as they are among some of the forest Negroes in the ►^emliki A'alley. Xeither they nor any other of the Bantu Kavirondo circuriicise, nor do the Masaba people (so far as I have seen) decorate the body tcith any pattern of scars or weals. They have a way occasionally of liurning the skin witli a red-hot iron as a counter-irritant to pain, and this leaves the body with irregular scars on the chest or back, but these are not intended as ornaments. In some of them the face is as much wrinkled as it is in an elderly Bush- man. Those of the ^lasaba people that dwell more in contact with the Nandi inhabitants of Elgon deck themselves with necklaces and bracelets of iron and ivory ; but the poorer or more savage people seemed to mt to wear nothing v.'hate\er in the shape of ornament, and to go almost entirely, if not quite, naked. The '-not quite'" is represented by a dirty piece of bark-cloth slung over one shoulder, but generally skmg in such a way as to serve the purposes of decencv. This is probably only due to the fact that the prudish Baganda, who have been administering their country, have insisted on all ])ersons approaching the Uganda settlements putting on a small amount of clothing. It was a curious fact among these people that the more wild, savage, and degraded they a})peared (as we advanced north- wards), the more archaic became their Bantu dialect. On the other hand, what one might style the Kavirondo jrro'per — the peoples who dwell in the valley of the Nzoia Eiver from near the south-east ■corner of Mount Elgon to the coast of the Victoria Nyanza— are, as a rule, a handsome race of negroes, exhibiting sometimes, especially among the men, really beautiful physical proportions and statuesque forms. Here and there, as throughout most of the Negro races (and European, for the matter of that) there are reversions to an ugly and inferior type representing the l^^'g'"y-I*™gii^tlious element which formed the first stratum of the human population in nearly all Negro Africa. Fig. 385, a Kakumega chief, illus- trates this re\ersionary type with strongly developed brow ridges, a flattened nose witli Itroad. prominent wings, and a long upper lip. On the other hand. Figs. 2(53 and 34 exhibit comely specimens of Negroes, very charac- terii>tic of Kavirondo. The men's figures in these specimens are notably fine and well-proportioned, and even the negresses of this type are, in 385. A KAKUMEGA CHIEF, tiOLTH OF XZOIA KlVEl!, NOUTH KAVIUONUO VOL. II. 17 728 BAXTU NEGllOES voung and iilumii iii(li\ iduals. not far oft' our European ideals of well- slia])cd Avoincii. 'llif JJaiitu Kaviroudo ihj not jnncfise circumcision. They usually pull Old the two inlthlle incisor teeth in the loiuer jaw. Both the men and the women do this. It is thought tliat if a man retains all his lower incisor teeth he will l)e killed in warfiire. and that if his wife has failed to imll out her teeth it might cause her husband to i)erish. For the same reason of averting ill fortune a woman cuts a number of vertical slits in the skin of her forehead, which leave small scars. The women also, as a means of securing good fortune for themselves and their husbands, make a number of snudl incisions (usually in patterns) in the skin of the abdomen, into which they rub an irritant, so that huge weals (similar to those described in connection with the western Bantu) rise up into great lumps of skin. A Kaviroudo husband, before setting out to fight or starting on a journey attended with great risks, will probably make a few extra incisions on his wife's body as a porte-boidieur* But ordinarily their bodies are kept freer from cicatrisation and similar attempts at ornamenting the skin than is the case with the peo])le in the western part of the Uganda Protectorate. Among the Bantu Kaviroudo the ear is usually only pierced in the lobe, and a single large ear-ring is worn by both men and women. Prior to the advent of Europeans cdmost no clothing icas icorn, especially by the males and the unmarried women. Even at the present day, where European influence has not made itself felt the men seldom specially wear their small covering for purposes of decency ; they don skins slung round one shoulder and worn over the side and the back for warmth. The men also adorn the uppjer arm, the wrist, and the leg below the knee and above the ankle with coils of iron ivire and bracelets and circlets of ivory. The women, if they can get them, will wear enormous quantities of beads in necklaces. Both sexes usually wear a ivaist-belt of beads, and the married women who have borne children wear a lower string of beads, to which is attached a tiny little apron of leather embroidered with beads, and also a long tail made of strings of fibre derived from a marsh j)lant. The tiny apron in front is sometimes made of short strings of the same fibre, instead of being a piece of leather sewn with beads. Very gi'eat importance is attached to this tiny square of filne or beadwork, and to the tail behind. If a mcin of the same tribe should touch this, the only covering worn by married woman, a great offence has been committed, exen if tlie man be the woman's husband. Unless the sacrifice of a goat is made it is tliought tliat the woman will * Primitive man has .so often a balf-tliought-out idea of "vaccinating" against misfortune and such a deep-seated belief in the malice of the higher powers. BANTU NEGROES 729 die of tlie insult. If. liowcvcr. these coverings are touched or torn off by an enemy or a stranger no harm is done. l>ut if the men are careless 386. KAVIROXDO WOMEN, XZOIA KIVEK about body covering they devote considerable pains to their head-gear. Besides circlets of hippopotamus ivory they will wear large tufts of black ostrich feathers over the forehead, or shaggy plumes made from cocks' feathers, or the long tails of the Chera (widow finch). They also construct 730 BANTU NEGROES }i(tfs of (fi(/(iniic size or fantastic sliajje, which they wear on great occasions. These hats are some- times as much as three feet high. They are usually of basketwork foundation, plastered on the ex- terior with white kaolin, and possibly variegated by stripes or patterns in black mud. Feathers are stuck into these hats. The men among the northern Eantu Kavirondo are much given to ornamenting their limbs with patterns of white clay. They may wear clay " stockings " below the knee or right up the leg, or there may be a separate patch of white clay right down the thigh. (Jn this clay a pattern is worked by a piece of stick, which removes the clay in places and leaves the dark skin showing through. As already stated, the l/ouitg women before marriage v:ear absoluteli/ no clothing, and in all the districts which have not been much visited by Europeans the men (except in cold weather) affect complete nudity. Despite, or because of, this neglect of clothing, they are. for negroes, a moral race, disliking real indecency, and only giving way to lewd actions in their ceremonial dances, where indeed the intention is not immodest, as the pantomime is a kind of ritual, the meaning of which is })erhaps not grasped by the dancer. In some places near the lake shore, or wherever else the natives are able to kill hippopotamuses, the tusks of the hippopotamus are. in some very adroit manner that I have not been able to ascertain, cut or split into longitudinal sections.* These are polished, and are worn on the forehead as circlets or crescents of ivory. Iron rings are worn on the thumb and fingers. The dwellings of the Bantu Kavirondo are r(Hind huts with a conical thatched roof and a fairly l)road verandah round the body of the hut (see plan). The foundation of the structure is, of course, a circular wall of * Perhaps filed down to thinness. KA\lUUMiU WU.MAN, -N/.IUA ia\l,K BANTU NEGROES 7:31 sticks and wattle, and a roof frame made of slender poles or the midril)s of palm fronds strengthened with reed basketwork. The framework of the roof, which is like a huge reversed funnel, is only lifted into position over the round wall of the house when the latter has been plastered with mud, and is fairly dry. The roof is then thatched with long grass. ' The verandah of poles supports the outer rim of the roof, the thatch of which projects sufficiently to shade this circular passage of raised clay. Portions of the verandah are even enclosed by partitions, with an outer wall of reeds or grass. Two equal-sized portions of the verandah are usually shut oflf in this way on either side of the door. Within the partition on the right- hand side is placed the grinding stone that the women use for rul)bing down grain into flom-. The back half of the circular verandah is usually open at the sides between the interstices of the poles. On entering the hut it will be seen that about one-fourth of its area has been partitioned off at the back with sticks and reeds, to make a sleeping place for goats. Fowls also slee[) inside the hut in a big basket, which is covered over at night. This basket has usually a long neck, and stands very high. The present writer has seen the neat way in which fowls put themselves to bed. They jump on to the rim of the basket and then dive boldly down through the neck into the wider portion below, where they remain in a warm mass one on to}i of the other. The floors of these huts are. of course, of clean, dry mud, usually pretty hard owing to the heat of the fires, which burn day and night. There is usually no raised bed for sleeping on. Skins are strewn about the floors „„ , „„.. .,.c.x-^,, ,,rci,-v« iv < r »y 388. K.\VIRONDO MEN (SHOWING ORNAMENTAL DE&IGNs IN CLAY for this purpose, usually on the legs) 732 BANTU NEGROES round tlie inner tirt'i.lacn'. There are two Hreplaces in the hut, concerning which there is the most ri^^(l etitiuette. Strangers or friends who are not KAVlKU.XliO -MKN AM i ■JIIKIK A I " 'iL\ M KM • near relatives when visiting the hut do not go l3eyond the first fireplace, which is oiear the door. It would be a great breach of good manners if they sat at the second fireplace, which is very nearly in the middle of the hut. The only people who are allowed this privilege are the brothers and sisters of the hut-owner, his wives, and his unmarried sons and daughters. The husbands of his daughters or the wives of his sons are not allowed to go to the innermost fireplace. If these rules are transgressed, the person offending has to kill a goat. All the occupants of the house then wear small pieces of the skin of the sacrificed goat, and smear a little of the dung on their chests. The furniture of a house usually consists of skins for sleeping on, cooking-pots, water-pots, beer-pots, and big earthenware vessels for containing dry grain. There is a large hollowed-out stone on the verandah, together with a small, round, and smooth boulder, which are kept within the right-hand porch, for grinding corn. Every full-grown man has a house to himself, and a house for each of his wives. Usually the huts belonging to a single family are enclosed within a fence of thorns and aloes. This, however, applies more to the southern })art of Kavirondo. In the north, and on the western slopes of Mount Klgon, large and small villages exist within a single circle of BAXTU NEGROES 733 outer wall. The huts of each family may be separated from their neighbours by low fences of thorns or hedges of greenery. In the case of all Kavirondo which lies between the Nzoia and 8io Rivers on the south and the southern and western slopes of Elgon on the north, the walled villages have a very remarkable appearance, and constantly suggest to the European traveller the notion that the walls are due to teaching given by some superior race from the north. On the outer side of this 390. A "MATINKK IIAT": KA\11{< i.M iO UN KAKrMKc;A COl NTin I more or less circular wall of clay there is a deep moat, which may be bridged over opposite to every gate. The gateways have jambs of hard 734 BANTU NEGROES wood, across wliicli aiv laid at tlie top several stout beams. The clay of the Avall is built u}) over the gateway till it rises into a peak. Some- times the wooden frames of these entrances are rudely arched. They are often high enough for a short man to pass through without bending his head. In the south of Kavirondo the people are content to surround their villages by hedges, which consist of thickly planted aloes mixed with a euphoi'hia that has filamentous branches and an exceedingly acrid white juice. The aloes are almost constantly in blossom. Their leaves are a pale green spotted with white, the stalks are dull crimson, and the flowers bright coral red, so that this hedge, relieved here and there with bright yellow-green euphorbia, gives the Kavirondo settlements a 391. PL.VN" OF .1 KAVIRONDO HOUSE very bright setting. Close to the houses are the grain-stores — large baskets raised above the ground on posts with peaked roofs of thatch. When access to them is required, the thatched roof is lifted off and the grain taken out of the receptacle. In most of the Northern Kavirondo villages tall masts may be seen erected at a slight slant. The upper part of these poles is hung with small baskets that contain decoy quails. Snares are placed on the ground round about the pole, and the wild quails, being attracted by the cries of the decoy birds, are caught and eaten. The houses of the Masaba tribes of West Elgon merit a special description in some particulars. They are rather well built, are usually thatched with banana leaves, and have their sides constructed of billets of BANTU NEGROES 735 wood placed upright in a serried row. Tlie roof is large and low spreading, not very liigb at the apex (the hut of course is round) and with a very low pitch. The apex of the roof is surmounted by a carved pole (often stuck through an earthenware pot), and this pole is obviouslv a jjhdlliis. Very frequently the pole is run through the skull of an antelope. The cookinKj is done inside the house, and hi/ ivomen. Onlv if a party of Kavirondo is on the road and it is a case of force majeure will the men do the cooking and make their kitchen in the open if no shelter is obtainable. The cooking vessels, of course, are earthen pots. The food, 392. IN A KAVIKO.NDO VILLAGK when cooked, is serv^ed up in small baskets. A- father does not eat with his sons, nor do brothers eat together ; women invariably partake of their food after the men have done. No woman would eat with a man under ordinary circumstances. They are rather more omnivorous than most of the other tribes in the Uganda Protectorate. A good deal of grain (sorghum, eleusine, and maize) is cultivated, and the flour of sorghum is a considerable staple in their diet. Bananas, beans, and peas are also cultivated and eaten. It is said that the cultivation of the banana is on the increase. At the time the present writer passed through the Kavirondo country he was struck with the magnificent fields of sorr/hum BANTU NEGROES 737 grain. This huge kind of millet, which in the south i.s known as "Kaffir corn" and in the north as '' durra," is probably of Asiatic origin, though it has developed several sp.ecies or sub-species under cultivation in Africa. It frequently grows to a height of twelve feet. Tlie heads of grain are often very brightly coloured, and as the colours vary among the plants in the same field from rose-pink to ivory-white and chestnut-black a flourishing field of sorghum is quite a handsome sight. The grain of this sorghum is ground into a coarse flour by means of tlie grinding stones. Vox some reason this native flour, which is often white and well ground, is very unwholesome for Euro- peans or Asiatics, almost in- variably leading to diseases of the bowels. It has been supposed that this occurs through the manner in which the flour is ground. Tiny, almost invisible fragments of stone undoubtedly join the flour as it is triturated, and prove too much for the digestion of any race but the negro. ELeusine is largely re- served for beer-making. Sii;j(ir- cane is almost absent from the Kavirondo country, honey with this people taking the place of sugar. Ground-nuts are grown in the Kabarasi country in the eastern part of Kavirondo. The Bantu Kavirondo keep cattle, sheep, goats, foivls, and a few dogs. Women do not eat fowls, sheep, or goats, and are beverage, though they may use it in or meat. In some instances chiefs do 394. GATE OK A WALLKI) TOWN" not aUou-ed to drink milk as a kind of sou}) mixed with flour a not eat sheep or fowls. People of both sexes may eat the flesh of the serval cat, and many of them will eat leopard meat. They devour most other birds and beasts, except the lion, vulture, crowned crane, and marabou stork. It is easy to under- stand their rejecting the last-named bird as an article of diet, because it is as filthy a scavenger as the vulture. Their respect for the croivned crane, however, actually seems to be due to admiration for its beauty, and the bird is found in large numbers in the Kavirondo country, where it is 738 BANTU NEGROES l)ractic-;illv protected. Tlie ox kept is the humped, short-horned variety. 15iitter is made from milk, and is often used as a dressing for wounds. The Kavirondo, especially in the valh^v of the Xzoia, hunt game with the lielp of dogs, driving the wild animals before them into a widely extended net, which consists of a long rope fastened in a rough semi- circle to trees or long poles. From this rope hang down numerous running nooses of string. These, at any rate, detain the creatures long enough to enable the men to come up with and spear them. They dig pits on the banks of rivers (covering the orifice with grass) to catch hippopotamuses as they leave the water, and they also rig up over the hippopotamus paths ropes and traps, by means of which a passing hippo loosens a heavily weighted harpoon sus- pended over the path, which then plunges into his back. Elephants are killed by a large number of hunters surrounding one of these animals and attack- ing it with assegais. Fish (of which the Kavirondo are ex- tremely fond as an article of diet) are angled for with rod and line, and are also caught in traps. In all the Kavirondo rivers there are built up at in- tervals two converging walls of stone, which are carried out into the bed of the stream at an angle of about sixty degrees. The small space between the two stone dykes is filled with ample fish-baskets. The fish coming down-stream have their only exit blocked, and must, l^erforce, fill the baskets. The snares for quails have ahready been mentioned. These are usually springes, with a noose of very fine string. The Kavirondo are essentially an agricultural people. Both men and women work in the fields with large iron hoes. As usual, their agriculture, being of the negro order, has been destructive to forests. The whole of Kavirondo was once covered with dense forest of a rather West African character, but trees are now scarcely ever seen, except in the river valleys. The people would hew down all the trees they could fell, and burn the 395. AlaUKL* UAIKWAY OF A WALLElJ XUWN, K^u^RO^•uo BANTU NEGROES 739 branches and trunks, mixing the ashes with the soil as manure. These fires would often kill the bigger trees less easy to liring down liy the native axes, and in time these would die, decay, and fall. After the^ land had borne two or three good crops it was abandoned and a fresh piece opened up. The country, therefore, outside the plantations is mainly 396. PEAKS OF THK HOOFS OF THE MASAUA HOISHS, WEST ELCON rolling downs covered with thick grass. From time to time pieces of the land which have thus lain fallow for years are reclaimed, tilled, and sown again. It is strange that the Kavirondo, who, in many respects, are neat and careful in their agriculture, should not have grasped the idea of manuring the soil with the refuse of their cattle-sheds, goat-houses, and villages. In addition to the food crops already mentioned, tobacco and BANTU NEGROES 741 hemp are both cultivated, and both are smoked. Both sexes smoke tobacco in pipes, and also take it in the form of snuff. Hemp is smoked in a hubble-bubble pipe of a form found throughout Eastern Africa, which 398. TAME FEMALE USTKK'HES l.\ .MUMIa's VILLAGE, KAVIKONDO is usually made out of a gourd, (hily men and unmarried women smoke hemp, as it is thought to be injurious to women who are to bear children. The Kavirondo cultivate the sesamum and make [oil from its seeds, which they burn in lltUe day lamps strongly resembling in form those of Egypt and Kome.* If a chief has many ca.ttle they usually sleep at night in a small kraal within the enclosure of his village, and close to his own hut. Favourite or valuable cows may, howe\er, share a hut with their owner, and a certain number of goats invariably do so. In Northern Kavirondo circular sheep-folds with thatched roofs are always made to ctmtain slieep in close proximity to the chiefs hut. Cattle are killed in the following manner: The ox is secured by a rope being ^tied round its neck; it is then deftly felled by a blow from a club on the back of its skull, after * The possession of these lanii)s is a remarkable feature of the Bantu Kavirondo. The lamps may be, like the blue beads, a relic of an ancient connnerce with Egypt by way of Somalilaiul. 712 BANTU NEGEOES whii'li its thvoat is cut. Goats and sheep are killed by suffocation. The snout is seized and firmly lield until the creature expires from want of breath. The Kavirondo are inordinately fond of their cattle, and a chief will frequently bemoan the loss of one of his cows with more genuine and heartfelt grief than he would display if he lost a wife or a child. Some of these people depart from ordinary negro custom in being slightly inclined to tame and domesticate birds and beasts. I have already mentioned that quails are kept in cages to decoy other quails into the snares. These little birds are carefully fed. and will sometimes live for several years in ca])tivity. Crowned cranes often haunt the })recincts of Kavirondo villages, and are jjrotected, if not tame. One chief kept a couple of hen ostriches in his village. Apiculture is carried on by most of the Kavirondo. who take i^^reat trouble about housing their bees. In districts where trees are scarce the hives (which are cylinders of wood or bark) are placed on the roofs of the huts. The flavour of the honey is often spoilt through a custom of boiling it. which is done (amongst other reasons) to extract the wax mixed up in the honey. Before the advent of the British power the various clans and tribes into wliieh the ]^)antu Kavirondo are di\ided were constantly at war one with the other. The Kavirondo also had to withstand attacks from the ^lasai, Xandi. and Lango people, so that, although compared to other peoples in the east and north of the Protectorate they may be termed a peact^ful race of rjenial savages, they were still inm-ed to warfare, and could often turn out sturdy warriors. Their weapons are spears with rather long, flat blades without blood-courses, and also spears with a short, leaf-shaped blade, bows and arrows, and wooden clubs. Their broad- bladed swords (tapering towards the hilt) were probably liorrowed from the Masai. The people speaking Kavirondo dialects on the islands opposite the Xyala coast use slings, from which they hurl stones with great force. These slings are similar to the ones used by the Bavuma. They did not usually poison their arrows, except in the chase, to kill the larger beasts. Shields are a long oval (vide Fig. 399) made of stiff, thick leather, with a boss in front whick is part of the handle behind. The rim of the shield is turned back, and the shield is slightly convex in shape. Formerly the liide used was that of the buffalo, which animal is now to all intents and purposes extinct in the Kavirondo country. The shields are now made from ox hide or from tlie skin of the Orycteropus ( ant bear). , kamu'J.M' 744 BANTU X IXIROES over his Ixxly to prevent the spirit of the deceased from worrying the man by whom he has been shvin. When jieople are killed in warfare, the victorious side endeavours to secure th«- bodies. The young warriors of the tribe who are just beginning to bear arms are encouraged to stab the bodies repeatedly with their spears so that they may become hardened to the sight of death and blood. The rivers of the Kavirondo country are not usually very navigable. Where there are no bridges ferrying is done in large dug-out canoes, which are obtained from the forests on the Nandi Escarpment. These dug-out canoes are usually punted across or along a stream by poles. The canoes used on the lake by the Nyara folk, who are the westernmost branch of the Kavirondo, resemble those of Uganda, but are less cleverly made. The Kavirondo people do not shine as navigators. En revanche, they are better bridfje-builders perhaps than the other races of the Protectorate. Their country, unlike Uganda, contains broad and turbulent streams, one or two of which are very considerable rivers. These rivers are bridged in two different ways. There is a suspension bridge cleverly slung from a big tree on one bank to an equally big tree opposite. On either side a ladder leads from the ground to the forking of the tree-trunk, from which the suspended bridge hangs. These bridges are really composed of kuge ropes of twisted creepers, from which depends perpendicularly a network of bast on either side, and a footway of basketwork, over which often thin planks and slabs of wood are placed. These suspension bridges require constant care, owing to the rapidity with which the fibre of the creeper-roj)es rots. They are, therefore, dangerous and uncertain. The other kind of bridge is made by driving two rows of stout piles into the bed of the river from bank to bank, with two or three or more in- tervals. The space between the piles is filled up with reedwork, gi-ass, stones, sticks, and mud until a rough kind of dyke, or barrier, crosses the stream, with a sufficient number of intervals to allow of the water passing. The u})per surface of this dyke is made passable by logs being thrown down on top of the rubbish. Logs also bridge the intervals, and in these intervals fish-baskets are placed. It is difficult to tell sometimes wliich is the main object in constructing these bridges — the maintenance of a fish weir or the securing of safe transit across a crocodile-haunted stream. Some- times these bridges are a zigzag series of stone dykes made of rough masonry similar to the stone fish weirs. Before the institution of a European Administration, the roads in Kavirondo were nothing but the narrow African path running from village to village. However careful people may have been to bridge the streams, or to establish canoe ferries, they never made any attempt to construct causeways over marshes, or to clear their paths of exuberant vegetation. BANTU NEGROES 745 Their paths were simply made by people walking single-file from one point to another. Their industries are simple. Salt is made by burning reeds and water- plants, and passing water through the ashes. The water is then boiled and strained, and a rough grey salt is the result. Iron ore is smelted in the hills, and the Samia Hills on the borderland between Kavirondo and Busoga yield iron ore of excellent quality. The Kavirondo blacksmiths use a bellows which is made out of a whole log of wood converging to a point. This point is inserted into a clay funnel. The log is really the section of the trunk of a small tree cut above and below its bifurcation. The two biggest branches are retained, and when the whole of the wood has been hollowed out it gives a central pipe with two branches. At the end of the openings of the branches a goat skin is loosely fastened. This skin is puckered up into a point in the middle, to which is fastened the end of a long, light stick. Each of these sticks being worked with a piston action, the air is sent through the central tube and the clay nozzle into the glowing charcoal. The chief things made out of the smelted iron are spear-blades, hoes, axes, adzes, arrow-heads, finger-rings, knives, and bells. Potter >/ is made with a certain amount of skill from black and red clay, but not much sense of beauty is displayed in the shapes, which are commonplace and purely utilitarian. Basketuvrk is amongst their industries. It is plaited grass as a rule. I have not noticed any mats in their possession, the people preferring to use skins. They will some- times wear a huge ox hide which is still very stiff, and has none of the suppleness of the beautifully dressed skins of Uganda. The only manufacture of this kind which is in some ways peculiar to the whole of the Kavirondo peo})le from Elgon on the north to the Shashi country on the south is a (joat or sl^eep skin that has been made perfectly supple on the under side by rubbing with fat and sand, while the hair aspect has been boldly decorated with poker patterns done with a red-hot iron or glowing stick. Sometimes these patterns are cut with a knife. In any case the effect is striking and sometimes artistic, as the unburnt hair stands u[) in bold relief against the pattern of smooth skin. The Bantu Kavirondo are divided at the present day into a number of very distinct tribes, and these again are minutely sub-divided into clans. Leaving out of consideration the isolated Masaba people on the western flanks of Elgon (whose language, though akin to the Kavirondo dialects, possesses remarkable and })eculiar features of its ownj, the principal tribal divisions of the Kavirondo into clans or families are the following: On the south-west there are the Banyala, who occupy the country between the Samia Hills and the Kiver Sio to the coast at the mouth 746 BANTU NEGROES of the Xzoia Hivcr. Then there are the Aiva-ivanfja,* who dwell between the Yala L'iver on the south and the Upper Sio on the north, inhabiting mainly the central valley of the Nzoia. The eastern branches of this last-named tribe call themselves Kakumega, Aba-kumega. North-east of the Awa-wanga is the large tribe of the Aha-kahanLsi (known to tlie Masai and to many Europeans as the Ketosh). The Kabarasi people extend their range to the southern flanks of Mount Elgon. >^outli of the Yala Kiver there is a break in the distribution of the Kavirondo, caused by the intrusion of the Nilotic tribe of the Ja-luo. Bantu-speaking Kavirondo begin to reappear in the Nyando Valley, near the head of Kavirondo Bay, and stretch southwards for a considerable distance towards the forest-clad heights west of the Lumbwa country and north of the Mori I\iver. In this southern extension they are known amongst themselves as the Aba-kisii, and near the Victoria Nyanza as the Aiua- kisingiri The Masai, however, call them Kosova. Finally, the eastern coast-lands of the ^'ictoria Nyanza, from the south side of tbe entrance into Kavirondo Bay up to the German frontier, are occupied liy the Awa-ware, who include the Awa-singa of Kusinga Island. It would seem to me as though the clans among the Ka\irondo Bantu possess totems or sacred animals or plants, but I have not been able to ascertain that such is actually the case. Observers like Mr. Foaker and 3Ir. Hobley (to hoih of whom I am much indebted for information) consider that the clans among these people are probably the descendants of notable chiefs. In the previous chapter it was related how a wealthy and virile chief like Luba amongst the Basoga could in some forty years present his country with 1,000 stalwart descendants, who already, no doubt, class themselves apart as a separate clan. It is easy to see, therefore, how similar clans could arise in Kavirondo. Among the Kavirondo icomen are in excess of 7nen, and the people are naturally inclined towards ijolygamy. It is highly improbable that any woman goes to her death unmarried ; for if no suitor asks for her in the ordinary way, she will single out a man and offer herself to him at a '-reduced price." The man would be hardly likely to refuse, since a woman in that country is a first-class agricultural labourer. The Kavirondo practise exogami/ — that is to say, they endeavour not to marry within their clan, but outside it. By those who know them, the Kavirondo are stated to be much more moral than the other Negi-o tribes of the Protectorate, or were so in the past before they became corrupted by Swahili porters from the coast, Indians, and white men. Until (piitt' recently adulter)/ on the part of a wife was punished with * llobley includes under the tribal name "Awa-rimi" the Awa-wanga and Kabarasi people. BANTU NEGROES 71-7 death, and death equally was meted out to young men and girls who were found guilty of fornication. It was thought a shameful thing if a girl was not found to be a virgin on her wedding day. Girls are often betrothed at the age of six or seven, and the intending husband makes repeated small presents to his future father-in- law. As soon as the girl reaches womanhood she is handed over to her husband. When this is done, or before it is done, the husband i)ays over the remainder of the purchase-money. He then appears with his relations to claim his bride, and if there is no opi)osition on the })art of an avaricious father-in-law, the young woman accompanies him to the house of one of her parents or one of his. Here, in the presence of a large number of girls and women, he consummates the marriage. If the girl shows herself to have been a virgin, he then takes her to his own home ; but if otherwise, she is returned to her jjarents with great contumely, and these last are obliged to send to the bridegroom not only all the cattle, goats, hoes, etc., which he has paid by instalments, but' to pay him in addition an amount equal to the whole of his purchase- money, as an acknowledgment of the disgrace brought on them by the misconduct of their daughter. There is a custom amongst the Kavirondo which would be very distasteful to those in England who oppose marriage ivith a deceased wife's sister. In this African Eden a man has the prescriptiv'e right to be offered the refusal one after the other of the younger sisters of his wife or wives as they come to marriageable age; and these girls cannot be handed over to other applicants until their brother-in-law has declined them. If a woman dies without having born? children, the amount of her purchase is supposed to be returned by the father to the widower unless he consents to replace her by another daughter. If a woman is ill-treated by her husband, she can return to her father, who then repays a portion of her marriage gift. If the woman is to blame, she is usually replaced by one of her sisters. The price to be paid for a ivife is generally considered to be as follows : Forty hoes, twenty goats, and one cow, a present usually given in instalments. More cows are paid if the girl is the daughter of an important chief. If the bridegroom has not been previously married, the girl is led to the house of the unmarried men of the village, and is there handed over to her husband. If the man is already married, the new wife is given in charge of the preceding wife or wives. If the father shows any reluctance to hand over the betrothed girl, the suitor .'■ends a band of young men who capture her and bring her to his village. If this act is attempted during the daytime, the young men of the girl's village and her brothers turn out to fight the suitor's party with sticks. The girl screams a great deal and makes many loud protests, but usually 748 BANTU NEGllOES allows licrsclf to 1k> captured. This ac\ of violence is only resorted to if the girl's father is avaricious. If a girl is not asked in marriage, she will often go off and ofter herself to a man of another village; and if he accepts her, hi'r mother arrives after a few days and negotiates for the payment of a marriage gift. In the Kavirondo country women are probalily in excess of men. Mr. Hol^ley states that in some of the Kavirondo tribes, though the cattle of the marriage gift became the property of the wife's father, all the cows to which they give birth are supposed to belong to his son-in-law, and must he lianded over to him, or to his heirs after his death. The women are prolific, and the birth of twins is not an uncommon occurrence. Tliis is considered an extremely lucky event, and is celebrated by an obscene dance, which, however, is only lewd in its stereotyped gestures, and does not, so far as I know, result in actual immorality. The mother of twins must remain seven days in her house before crossing the threshold. After the birth of a child a goat is killed, and the mother eats some of the meat. "\'ery little other ceremony takes place, and if a single child is born the mother goes out again to her work in the plantations three or four days after the event. There is much mortality amongst the children, and it frequently occurs that a woman loses all her offspring one after the other. When this has been the case the next child that is born of her is taken out at dawn and placed on the road, to be left there until a neighbour should pick it up and bring it back. This ofhce is usually performed by some friendly woman who has a hint to walk in that direction. This woman must receive the present of a goat before she surrenders the child, of which she is henceforth considered to he the foster-mother. Names may be employed indifterently for a male or female child, a girl often taking her father's name. The Kavirondo profess to be able to tell the sex of an unborn child if the mother is pregnant for the first time. If the child is going to be a girl, the mother remains fat ; if it is going to be a boy, she gets thin. If the mother has liorne children before, her last child is watched whilst the mother is pregnant, and if this child be a boy and waxes thin, then the coming child will be a girl, or vice versa. But if the coming child is to be of the same sex as the one which has preceded it, the preceding child remains fat. As regards the disposal of tlie body after death, it may be stated that all the Eantu Kavirondo bury their dead, and do not expose them in the bush to be devoured by hyaenas and vultures. A cliief or a person of imp(jrtance is buried in the floor of his own hut in a sitting position, but only at such a d('i)th that the head may easily protrude above the surface of the ground. The earth is filled in up to the neck of the corpse and BANTU NEGROES 719 beaten down. The exposed head is then covered with a hirj^e earthenware j)ot, and a watch is kei)t over the head by the elder rehitimis, who from time to time remove the pot and ascertain whether the flesh has disappeared. When the skull has been completely cleaned by ants (who are useful scavengers in this respect), it is carefully removed from the re.^t of the skeleton and is buried close to the liut. Later on the bones of the body are all dug up (having been thoroughly cleansed of flesh by insects), and are reburied Avitli great ceremony at one or other of the sacred burial places (usually groves on the tops of hills where a few fine trees remain as vestiges of a once universal forest). The body of a chief is wrapped in the hide of an ox which has been killed for his funeral feast. When an ordinary man dies, his sons and brothers or his wives dig the grave in the middle of his hut, and the corpse is buried lying on its right side with the legs doubled up. The hut is not used afterwards. Women are buried in the same way. A child is buried near the door of its mother's hut. After the death of a married woman her relations attend as soon as possible, and expect when they arrive a small present from the widower. The main object of their visit is to icail for the deceased. This is done after the death of any one excepting a young child for two days imme- diately following the decease. Then, again, the women wail every evening after the first two days for three days more, and this cry of sorrow (which is a doleful howl) continues at intervals for some weeks afterwards. If a chief of importance dies, his death will be mourned by wailing in the morning and the evening for a whole year. A sign of mouruiwj on the part of these people is a cord of banana fibre worn round the neck and waist. Before a chief dies he chooses one of his sons to succeed him, in some cases giving the son (or, if he be a child, his mother) a brass bracelet as a sign of his succession to the chieftainship. When an ordinary man dies, his property is equally divided amongst his children. The mother of a grown-up son goes to live with her son when she becomes a widow ; but if one of the wives of the deceased has only small children, she is taken to wife by her eldest stepson, who also adopts the children. An elderly widow who has no grown-up sou goes to live with her brother-in- law, the brother of her deceased husband. A man, however, is forbidden to take to wife his mother's sister, his aunt, whom, however, he will endeavour to support. This aunt will, if possible, live with the young man's mother, and be treated by him as analogous to his mother. Foaker considers the Bantu Kavirondo t^ be distinctly on the increase. He points out that this increase was checked from time to time by famines, which were the result of periodical droughts or raids into the country by the Nandi and other aggressive tribes. With peace, and with 750 BANTU NEGROES a more careful agriculture, the country slioukl support a very large popu- lation, because the heavy rainfall on Elgon and on the Nandi Plateau should, by the streams and rivers it feeds in Kavirondo, make the irrigation of crops perfectly easy in those plains where the rainy season is sometimes imcertain. The fecundity and morality of the people are additional reasons wliy the race should prosper. Happily the nation remains up to the present free from that scourge, syphilis, which has so checked the po})ulation of I'ganda. The Kavirondo who live in the lower-lying lands suffer very frequently from a mild form of malarial fever. Their attacks of tliis disease usually last for about three days. Dysentery attacks them when they leave their own country, if the weather is wet and drinking water is contaminated. They are also very subject to pneumonia. Small- pox has ravaged them again and again, and they are eager to be vaccinated. Vaccination a})pears to preserve them from this disease, or to cause them to take it very mildly. Although, as a rule, such a fine- looking race, they have not much stamina away from their own country. They suffer terribly from cold when they are taken on to the Nandi Plateau or the upper part of iNIount Elgon, and as porters, though they are very willing, they have nothing like the strength or endurance of Wanyamwezi or Baganda. As regards native remedies for diseases, they have salves for wounds, but profess to have no medicine that will heal the large malarial ulcers. For inflammation of the lungs or pleurisy they pierce a hole in the chest until air escapes througli it. In a few days they appear to be quite well, and simply dress the wound with butter. Seemingly they have no professional medicine men, but are content with women doctors, who are calle;l " Ba-fumo." * Their therapeutics are very simple. They can make salves for wounds out of the leaves of certain plants, but apart from that they attem})t to cure most illnesses by putting pebbles in a gourd and rattling them over the head of the sick person until he is nearly deafened. If that fails to cure him, they cut off the head of a fowl or of a quail, and hang it to a string round his neck, to be worn until the cure is effected. Medicine amongst most Africans easily tails off into ivitchcraft. This is- of two kinds in Kavirondo: "obufira" is a kind of white magic, or the * This is a very interesting i)oint. The singular of this word would be " mufumo." This is a widesjjread word all through East Africa, from Zanzibar and the opposite coastdand down to the Zambezi and across the southern half of Africa to j)arts of the Congo and Angola. It is perhajis the most widely spread Bantu word meaning " chief." Some have thought that this word was connected with a root meaning "spear" in some Bantu languages; but it would seem from this survival in such an archaic dialect as Kavirondo that the original meaning of the word was " inedicine man," just as the big chiefs among the Masai are also the great medicine men. BANTU NEGROES 751 use of liypnotism and the powers of divination for innocent purposes ; "obulogo"is little else than poisoning or scaring people into fits by uncanny practices. Mr. Hobley states that the Kantii Kavirondo practise trial for witch- craft by an ordeal which seems to be similar to the drinking of '' mwavi " in South Central Africa, though the dose is seldom sufficient to cause death. As to omens, they are convinced as to the Y)rosperity or bad lack of a journey if at their departure a bird cries out on their right hand or on their left. The right hand is unlucky ; the left lucky. If a man leaves his house in the early morning to start on a journey, he says to the first person he meets, '• Are you lucky or unlucky ? " and if the person replies " Unlucky," the traveller should return to his dwellingf. P'rom childhood a person is known as lucky or unlucky. This character is ascertained in the following manner : If a child comes into a house on the early morning of a day which tiuns out to be a fortunate day, they say the child is lucky, or vice versa, and thus each individual in the com- munity grows up with a reputation for being lucky or unlucky. first child of a young married couple is a girl, it is very lucky, so that very often a person starting on a journey will ask the first man he meets, "Was your first child male or female?" If he replies "Male," the traveller should return to his home, as he has started with a bad omen. If a man on starting for a journey strikes the big toe of his right foot twice against a stone or root, it is a bad omen. If he strikes first the right toe and then the left, it is all right. If he strikes the big toe of his left foot twice running, the greatest good luck will attend him. If, instead of meeting a single individual, a whole crowd are encountered, no omen can be obtained. The right side is termed the male, and the left side the female. In all these omens the left side is lucky. They have the greatest faith in divination by examining the entrails of a sheep. 400. A KAVIK(X\I)0 WIZARD If the 752 BANTU NEGROES goat, or ox. Tlie small intestine is arranged so that it falls into three •coils, and from the emptiness or fulness of the intestine in each coil deductions favourable or unfavom-able are drawn. The chief of each tribe decides hy such methods when the favourable season for planting has ■come, and no one plants the fields until the chief and the elders of the tribe have decided that the lucky period has arrived. They still believe in rain-makers, who, in dry seasons, are consulted. If hail falls, no one goes to cultivate the plantations on the day following the storm. If a house is struck by lightning, it is abandoned, and no one is allowed to remove a single stick. The northern Kavirondo appear to believe in the existence of two gods more important than the vague ancestral spirits whom they also propitiate. These two deities are known as Aivafiva* and Ishishemi. Awafwa is the chief of all the good sjiirits. and Ishishemi is a sort of devil. Cattle and goats are often sacrificed to Awafwa, the ceremony usually taking place on the grave of some departed chief whose personal intercession may induce Awafwa to bring rain or drive away sickness. The Bantu Kavi- rondo plant stones in the ground near their houses, and at intervals kill a goat and pour out libntions of goat's blood over these stones to the memory of the spirits of their ancestors. They also pay reverence to the deceased by building small huts in a village and sticking the feathers of fowls on the top of the roof of the tiny hut. Some people also cut a small door at the back of their own dwelling with the idea that in some ■way it assists the passage in and out of good ancestrcd spirits. So far as they reason about the matter at all, they would appear to disbelieve in the continued life after death of unimportant persons. It is only chiefs or head-men of importance whose spirits continue to exist after the death of the body, and who in some way become })art of the forces of nature. Amongst cmious customs may be mentioned the importance which is attached to the closing or leaving open of a door. It is considered a very bad omen if a person shuts the door of a house after him, leaving At the time any one behind inside the hut. In such a case a goat must be sacrificed and eaten by the parties concerned to avert ill fate. If a man quarrels with his wife and she goes out of the hut. and the husband then shuts the door behind her, this is equivalent to divorce, and the woman returns to her own people at once. In making peace after warfare or after personal quarrels, a goat or .sheep is used as a sacrifice when it is people of the same tribe who have fallen out. The liver of the sacrificed animal is cooked and is divided between botli sides, whose representatives eat the portion allotted to them. * "Awafwa" may simply mean "the dead," "those who are dead," and be the summing up of all the ancestral spirits into one kindly, tribal god. BANTU NEGHOES 753 If the figlit has been with another tribe, or between strangers, the van- quished party obtains a dog and cuts it in half. Tlie delegates from each side hold respectively the front and hind legs of the divided dog, swearing jieace and friendship over the half they hold. Some of the Kavirondo jieople place a dead crow on the ground between the negotiating parties whilst peace ceremonies are going on. They have but few viyths or traditioois, or rather it would be more correct to say that none of these have yet been ascertained ; bu^ Mr. Hobley informs me that their folk-lore, especially about beasts, is fully as elaborate as among other Bantu peoples of Uganda. In these stories the Orycteropus, or ant bear, frequently figures. 401. A KAVIRONDO MUSICIAN", WITH LYRE Their music is plaintive, and sometimes pretty. They have no other instru- ments but drums and a large lyre, of which an illustration is given (Fig. 401). As regards dances, these are frequently held, and appear to be divisible into four or five kinds. There- is the dance given to celebrate the birth of twins in a village. This is said to be of an obscene nature, though, as I have said before, the obscenity appears to lie in the stereotyped gestures, and not in tlie thoughts or intentions of the people at the time of dancing. It is danced by both men and women. Secondly, there is a death dance, which is also joined in by both sexes. If the dead person is a man, every village which is represented at the dance .sends a bullock for the funeral feast. Mr. Hoblev states that a third kind 751 BANTU NEGllOES of chance is given after some kind of sexual initiation ceremony, at which men and women dance together.* Each dancer lias a stick from which tlie hark has been removed in alternate rings. The people dance in a circle, shake their shoulders, and slowly revolve with abrupt movements and much stamping. After a wedding there is a dance in which women alone perform. Finally, it is said that a dance takes jalace in seasons of drought to propitiate the good spirit and bring down rain. In language the Kavirondo are closely allied to the ugly Masaba ^.^S'i^^^'' -^*ti£asrC} 402. A DANCK IN KAVIKOXDO peo]>le of West Elgon, but in physique they are almost typically Bantu — so far as any 15antu type of Negro can be defined. They almost certainly entered their present habitat a long while ago from the north or north- west. They did not, as Mr. Hobley thinks, advance to their present sites from the south end of I^ke Victoria, and the supposition on which this theory is based — namely, special relationship between the Kavirondo and Kinyamwezi dialects— is an incorrect one. All the Kavirondo dialects are much more closely related to ]. Uganda and I'runyoro than they are to * Mr. HoMey says "circumcision," but as the Kavirondo do not circumcise he possibly means some ceremony connected uitli tlio arrival at laiberty of boys 01- girls. BANTU NEGROES /oo Kinyamwezi. They ofifer a greater resemblance, though not a very marked one, to the speech of the Kikuyu })eople who dwell to the east of the Kift Valley. Eut the Kikuyu dialect is far less archaic. In physique the Bantu Kavirondo offer considerable resemblance to the Karamojo people who live far to the north of ^Nlount Elgon. Though the Karamojo speak at the present day a language which belongs to the Masai group, Dr. Shrubsall considers that as far as their bodily characteristics are concerned they are practically Bantu Negroes. The Kavirondo [;eople 403. A P-IS Df PJ;r.V IS A KAVIRONDO DANCE represent the easternmost wing of the original Eantu invaders of the countries between the Albert and Victoria Nyanzas and ,Mount Elgon. It is an open question at the present time whether they preceded the Nilotic Negroes (Acholi, Lango, etc.), or whether, after the coasts of the Victoria Nyanza had been occupied by Bantu-speaking people, of which the Kavirondo were the northern section, there followed a rush southwards of the Nilotic tribes, an impetus which planted the Ja-luo to the south of Kavirondo, and caused the Elgumi (who speak a language like Silk and ]Masai) to establish themselves between the Masaba of ^Mount Elgon and the Kavirondo of the Nzoia Valley. CHAPTER XYIII NILOTIC NEGIWES rr^HK autlior of this ])ook attem})ts his definitions of the different Negro -L types with considerable hesitancy. There rises up before him the overpowering conviction that, although there may be four or five well- marked varieties of the ty})ical Negro, specimens of all or most of these varieties may be found in nearly every negro tribe. It is, therefore, difficult to point to any one group of negroes which share without deviation the same type of language, beliefs, manners, and customs, and, equally present to the observer, identical physical characterisation. He has written thus deprecatingly when discussing the Bantu type, for amongst the Bantu Negroes there are people short and simian, like the ugly Congo Dwarfs, and others tall and handsome, like the better type of Zulu, Manvema, or Kavirondo. Broadly speaking, the Negro race in Africa may be divided into three main groups: (1) the Negro in general — the big black man ranging from Abyssinia to Senegal and from Lake Chad to Cape Colony; (2) the Congo Pygmy ; and (3) the Hottentot -Bushman. In this chapter the present writer is again brought to consider the difficulty of connecting homogeneous physical traits with any one of those great and small divisions of the Negro peoples which depend mainly on groupings of language or adventitious political circumstances. The Negroes of the Nile basin, from the Victoria Nile and Albert Nyanza on the south to the verge of the Nubians, Arabs, Abyssinians, and Galas on the north, share a few peculiarities in common, and may be, perhaps, conveniently classed together for the present purpose of discussing their physical features, manners, and customs. The bodily type of the true Nile Negro extends from the western frontiers of Abyssinia through the Bahr-al-Ghazal region to Bornu. i)erhaps even to the Central Niger,* and from about 200 miles south of Khartum to tlie nortli-eastern shores of the Victoria Nyanza This type may be roughly descrilied as follows : A head inclining to be broad rather than long, with a slight protruding nuizzle and retreating chin; cheek-bones * It is also very similar to tlie Hausa and Songhai type in West Central Africa. 750 NILOTIC NEGROES 75T which, besides exhibiting great breadth, are particularly prominent just below the outer angle of the eye. The nose is very flat at its base between the eyebrows, and the whole inner part of the face between the e3'ebrows, cheek- bones, and upper lip has a flattened look, as though it had been •• sat on " when in a plastic condition. This appearance is specially characteristic of the women, who are usually hideously ugly. The men are invariably better- lookinsf than the women, and where there is a dash of Hamitic or Arab blood in their veins, ancient or recent, they develop a prominent bridge to the nose and a better-shaped chin, which relieves the face of its flatness. The forehead bulges somewhat, and keeps Avell in front of the brow ridges, which are unusually prominent. There is a distinct inclination to be tall and long- limbed. The leg below the knee is ex- ceptionally long, straight, and slim, with very little development of calf. On account of their long, thin legs, both Heuglin and Schweinfurth compared them to " human storks." As a rule there is no tendency to bandy legs, though it is not uncommon to see the inner side of each knee in close contact (when a man is standing upright) with a wide space between the legs just above the ankle (vide back view in Fig. 406). There is a tendency in the gluteal muscles to overlap the 7Kites excessively, which gives the figure sometimes a slight appearance of the Hottentot posterior. This, however, is a feature more met with in the women than in the men. As a general rule it may be said that the Nile tribes who have not ?^\ '^' -*o\v- 404. A BAKl NEUKO, GO.NDOKOKO, NILE 758 NILOTIC NEGROES uiiiigle;! mucli with tlie Bantu on the south or the Hamites on the north have ugly features as eoni})are(l with such statuesque negroes as the better <'lass of Kavirondo, /uhi, or kindred Bantu races. Though the figure, howe\er, may be ugly from a sculptor's point of view (it being sometimes long and lackadaisical, at others square-shouldered and thin-legged), the men are powerfully built, and belong to a virile race. Where, as in 405. A BAEI NEGRO, GOXDOKOKO, WHITE NILE the south of their domain, they have mingled with the Bantu, the ^Nfasai, or Hamite, they become (in the male sex) a handsome people corporeally, the good looks even extending sometimes to the lineaments of the face. The colour of the skin is generally very dark : perhaps the blackest of negroes are found in this Nilotic group, which really stretches westwards across the Sudan far beyond the limits of the Nile basin. The hands and feet are usually small, llie arms are long, especially in the forearm. VOL. II. 19 700 NILOTIC NEGIIOES The hair on llic head is that (jf the ordinary negro type, jind is fairly abundant, the women being able to grow it in long strings or plaits to the length of nearly twelve inches. ]Iair is scrn})ulously removed from all parts of the body. \\'hen free from ]Mnliammadan influence, none iif the Nile races circumcise. Most of them, however, knock end the loiver incisors. This, however, is not generally done by tlie ]>ari and ^ladi. but seems to he practically limited to the many tribes who speak Nilotic languages of the wide- sjiread Dinka-Acholi group. Some of the Madi people — a group com})rising many tribes — score the cheeks with three or four parallel longitudinal cuts, which give an ugly, scarred appearance to the face ; l:)ut tins is only done where they have come under Nubian influence as slaves and soldiers. In the Aluru, who are a western branch of the Acholi. a })attern is sometimes made on the brow hy means of raised lumps of skin. As a rule, the Bari, Acholi, and Lango men leave their skins undecorated by cicatrisatiou. Sometimes, however, the Acholi men raise prominent cicatrices over the temples or cheeks in wavy or zigzag patterns. On the outer side of the thigh and buttocks these raised scars are traced in long scrolls of artistic design. The Bari ivomen raise scars of a herring-bone }jattern on the upper arm down from the shoulder to the inner aspect of the elbow. In many of the tribes to the east and west of the Nile the lon:er Up is pierced, and a piece of polished quartz, sometimes three inches in length, is inserted. The women in some tribes pierce the ujiper li]), and wear through it a big brass ring, which is hung Avith beads. Among the IMadi tins is done, or a small disc of wood is inserted in the upper lip. like the '• pelele " of the Eabira and Nyasaland natives. Some of the w"estern Acholi tribes have a stone ])encil not only through the lower lip, but anotlier oru^ phiced in the upper lip. (This custom extends also into the Karamojo connfry. and examples may be seen in Figs. 40(i and 408.) Some 407. A LOGBWAKl (,MAIIl) NEGKO (MIXED KACE OF NILE NEGRO AND BANTU) NILOTIC NEGROES 761 of the Aclioli pierce their ears, and the numerous ear-rings of the Ja-Uio will be described later on when that tribe is dealt with. But nowhere amongst the true Nilotic people are the lobes of the ears widened into huge loops, a practice which is peculiarly characteristic of the ^Nlasai, and of such tribes as are. or have become, affiliated to them by descent, conquest, or association. A very characteristic attitude of the Nilotic people marks relationslii[) with or affinity to that race, wlierever it is seen. This is a posture they adopt when at rest. They stand erect on one leg, and, bending the other, press the sole of its foot against the inner surface of the knee of the leg which serves as a support. This is an attitude in which they will stand for hours, ^chweinfurth remarked this pose among the Xyam-Xyam and otlier tribes of the Bahr-al-Ghazal region. Eastwards and southwards it may be noticed among the Ja-Iuo (Kavirondo). tlie Xandi, Lumbwa, and other non-Bantu people, who are to some extent connected in origin with the Xegroes of the Xile. The true Nilotic Negroes may be divided at the present day into the Shiluk (or Shiioli), Dinka (Jaiige), XuJr, Shangcda, Chi)-, Man- dari, Janhara, Dyur (Luo), Alitru, Acholi {Shtdi), Lango. Uniiro, Kumum, Jardum, and Ja-luo (Kavirondo) tribes or peoples ; and no doubt this list leaves unmen- tioned many other tribal designations belonging to branches of the same stock between the Nile and the western frontier of Abyssinia ; while affiliated in language, in habits, cus- toms, and to some extent in bodily appearance, are the Turka/ta-Masai, „ , ., „ , ' 408. KARAMOJO NEGROES (SHOWIXG PENCILS THRLST INTO Bari, and Xandi groups. the lower lips) 7(*.i> NILOTIC NEGROES From ;i llnrjuistic point of \ie\v these people fall into at least foiu' divisions (not to mention other forms of speech used l)v Nilotic Negroes to the westward of the region under consideration), three of which — the Xilotic ('l)inka-Acholi), the Xandi, and the Masai — nve distantly related, while the fourtli — Madi — has little in common with the ]Silotic lantruas^es. but betravs some- / what ^^'est African affinities in its phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar, and even offers a very faint, perhaps disputable, resemblance to the Eanta family. The languages s})oken by the Dinka, Shiluk, Acholi, Aluru. Lango, and Ja-luo are all closely allied. The sub-group, indeed, of the Acholi (with its dialects of Alura, Lango, and Ja-luo) is practically one language. According to native tradition, the Acholi section of the Nile peoples swept down on the equatorial sections about the great lakes at no very remote })eriod. It is, per- haps, an open question which came first, the Bantu Negi'oes from tlie north-west or the ^^ ^^ ^^^^ Acholi Nile people from the north. I think, VN^S ^B ^^^H *^^^ ^^^^ whole, that the Bantu preceded the '^^^^^^'' ^^^^ Nile Negroes in these regions. Another ja'oblem is the relationship between the Nile Negroes and the Nandi and Masai tribes. The Masai (jroHp of languages — which comprises the very distinct tongues of Bari. Latuka. Karamojo, Turkana, Silk, Elgumi (Waniiaj. and Masai — and the Xandi and a few broken dialects in the north of Lgogo, have an indisputable relationship in vocabulary and numerals with the Nilotic tongues. Yet the differences be- tween the two stocks are considerable, and the differences, again, between the Bari snb-grouj), the Karamojo-Suk dialects, the Nandi. and the Masai, are almost equal to the difference between German and Russian. In the Bari we find a jjcople of typical Nilotic physique speaking one of the languages of the Masai group. In the 3Iasai we see a race which is negroid rather than Negro, and offers but little resemblance physically to the Nile Negroes, though the Masai language is remotely related- to Acholi and Dinka. Again, in the Karamojo people we have a race which, according to Dr. Shrubsall, is that of the 409. A DINKA NILE NEGKU NILOTIC NEGROES ■(;:) liantu Xegro stock, l)ut Avliicli speaks in a sliglitly coriupted form a dialect oloselj allied to the lanouage of the Silk, tlu^ Silk again l;eing negroes near akin to the Masai, with a little less Haniitic blood in their veins. The unwritten history of the present distril)ution of these trihes and forms of speech, and of tlie race moxements whicli brouglit about the existing mixture of jieoples, may be something like this: Imagine Xegro Xileland to have been peopled at one time by the Pygmv-Prognath.ous gi'ou[) in the territories now comprised in tlie Uganda Protectorate, and perhaps by a kindred race of stunted stature — the ancestors of the Hottentots and Bushmen — away to the east in what is now Ihitish Iiast Africa.* Into these regions came pouring some three thousand years ago a horde of West African Negroes speaking the mother-tongue of the Pantu languages. The Bantu possibly came from the north-west, from the region along the water-parting between the Congo and the Nile systems. The rush of the Bantu carried them not only all over the basin of the Upper Nile and A'ictoria Nyanza, but they streamed away south-south-east towards the coast of the Indian Ocean. From the north- east, Hamitic people, of Caucasian stock tinged with the Neorro, trickled down slowlv into the northern territories of the Uganda Protectorate. At one time, no doubt, these Hamites had only a scattered population of Bantu (the Bantu having previously absorbed the antecedent Congo PygmiesJ to deal with. They were received with reverence by these then savage West African Negroes (the Bantu), and mingled with them so much at first as to create practically a new breed of Negro sucli as we now style the Bantu. These Bantu made their first great expansion in tlie countries between the Victoria and Albert Nyanzas. Strengthened and im}iroved in mind and body by this iuHltration of Caucasian l)lood. they swept down over the soutliern half of Africa, licking up and absorbing and exterminating the feebler Pygmy races which had preceded them, and implanting their language on other tribes of }iure Negroes. This fir>t outburst of Bantu energy having spent its force to hOTue extent, there came other people of allied stock from the west (the ]Madi, for example), speaking languages whicli * The dividing- line l)etwceu tlie two lieiiig drawn tliri)Ugli th? iniddle of Mount Elaxm down to the sonth-cast corner of the Victoria Xvanza. 764^ NILOTIC NEGEOES in their origin may have had some connection with the Bantu grou[). Then down from the north came the ancestors of the Nile Negroes, driven south possibly by the first determined Hamite invasion of the Egyptian Sudan and Abyssinia. The Nile Negroes swept due south, and in places were checked and pro- foundly modified by the thinner stream of Hamitic immigrants (ot the (jrala stock) who were continually entering Negro Nileland from the north-east. Some fusion in varying degrees be- tween the Hamite and the Nile Negro created the ]Masai and Silk types, and temporary successes of this powerful blend carried the modified Nile languages (which we know now as the ]Masai group) westwards as far as the Bari country (where the language became tinged with West African phonology), and south- wards deep into what is now German East Africa. In the middle of Negro Nileland a large section of Bantu Negroes was stranded, and adopted a dialect of this ^las-ai group (I refer to the Karamojo). Elsewhere, however, the constant stream of Nilotic Negroes following one anotlier in waves of immigration carried this Negro type and its language actually to the north-west coast of Lake Albert (the Ahu-ii) and to the north-east coast of the A'ictoria Nyanza (the Ja-luo). The Ja-hio fragment of the great Nilotic invasion overla})ped 411. A BAKI NEGRO FROM BEDDEX, WHITE NILE NILOTIC NEGROES 765 the barrier of the Kaviroiido Haiitii and settled to the .1 WOMEN AT THEIK HAIK-UKES81.\(; influence of neighbouring Masai or Gala tribes or have still retained in South Central Africa the impress of Bahima customs.* In their own homes in the de})th of the forest the Dwarfs are said to neglect coverings for decency in the men as in the women, but certainly when they emerge from the forest into the villages of the agricultural Xegroas they are always observed to be wearing some small piece of bark- cloth or skin or a bunch of leaves over the pudenda. Elsewhere in all * The only Bantu tribes which formerly were, or at the ]iresent day are, without feelings of shame in regard to the exposure of the person in the rnale are the A-kamba, A-kikuyu, Wa-chaga, and other tribes in British East Africa living in close relations with the Masai or the Gala ; the Kavirondo, who were similarly influenced by the Nile Negroes ; the Bakonjo of Euwenzori, who in this may have copied the Hima customs ; the Barundi of North Tanganyika likewise ; the Nkonde tribes of the north end of Lake Nyasa ; the Mashukuhunbwe and Batonga of the Central Zambezi; and the Zulus of South and South Central Africa.: In Xhe case of all the Bantu tribes mentioned, except those of North Nyasa, Central Zambezi, and Zulu- land, it is easy to understand how this preference_ for nudity on the part of the male may have arisen from contact Avith Nilotic, Masai, or Hamitic customs. It is less easy for the same theory to explain it in the case of the Wankonde, the Central Zambezi, or the Zulu Negroes, unless it be assumed that these races have "migrated in relatively recent times from countries dominated by the Bahima. ' - ■ 770 XILOTIC XEGROES the regions of Africa \isite(l by the writer of this book, or described by other observers, a neglect of decency in tlic male has only been recorded ^niong the Efik people of Old Calabar. The nudity of women is another ^' *#^ '^i 417. MADI WOMAN POUNDING CORN IN A W ' ■question. In j.arts of West Africa between the Niger and the Gaboon ■(especially on the ("ameroons Kiver. at Old I'alabar. and in the N'iger Delta) it is — or was — customary for ycung women to go about completely nude before they are married. In Swaziland, until quite recentlv, NILOTIC XEGP.0E8 771 unmarncd women and verv often nialrons went stark naked. Eveu anioni(st the prudish Baganda, wlio made it a })iinishalile oii'ence at one time for a man to expose any part of his leg above tlie knee, the wives of the king would attc^nd at his court perfectly naketl. Araon'j- the- 418. ALUKU WOMAN' AM) CHILD FKOM WADEl.AI Kavirondo all unmarried girls are completely nude, and although womei> who have become mothers are su})posed to wear a tiny covering before and l)ehind. they very often completely neglect to do so when in their own villages. Yet, as a general rule, among the 2slle Negroes, and still more markedly among the H:imites and peoples of Masai stock, the //li NILOTIC NEGROES women are jiarticular about con- coaling the pudenda, wliereas the ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^— men are ostentatiously naked. ■k JHRi^^^^H- ^^^^^^^H Tiie Baganda hold nudity in the ^^B jy ^^^Hp ^^ male to l)e such an abhorrent ^^B ^XW/tfL. ^J^^wit thing tliat for centuries they ^^B '^'1^^^^^^WSMk0'^ have referred with scorn and W^^ ■L^y'^^^^^" ^ disgust to tlie Nile Negroes as the I ^^^Ki ^ i "Ba-kedi," or '-Naked People." i^^^^Hv, Speke includes all regions to the .-^^^HiF*'^»v^ J. north and east of Uganda and f^^^^ T^iH Tnyoro as "• Kidi " (a misrender- ^ Jr ^SO ' ingoftheroot "kedi" — "naked"), and to this day the word has be- come so rooted as a geographical term that one of the districts of the Uganda Protectorate is styled " Bukedi," or the '• Land of Nakedness." This condition ()f male nudity extends north- west to within some 200 miles of Khartum, or, in fact, wherever the Nile Negroes of the Dinka- Aclioli stock inhal)it the country. The style of house built by the Nile Negroes is as character- istic of them as the attitude of standing on one leg. The hut is circular in shajje, and the sides may lie made of reeds. There is great uniformity amongst the Nile Negroes in the style of tliatcJiing their huts. Their houses are the round beehives built of reeds or wattle and daub, but the peaked roof is a high one, extending over the framework of the house nearly to the ground, and is thatched in a series of flounces. Wherever the Nile people have carried their languages tliis -flounced" thatching appears, with the excejition, perhaps, of Karamojo (where the people, being of Bantu origin, appear to have retained the smooth-thatched huts) and among the Ja-luo, whose houses are built just like those of the Bantu Kavirondo. The Masai group, however, though allied in origin and language to the Nile Negroes, does not adopt tliis style of thatch. As will be seen in the next chapter, they eitlier bnihl houses like those of the Bantu Negroes 419. ALURU \VOM.\N AND CHILD FROM WADELAI 420. LEXDU WOMAN (PKOUAIil.Y OF MIXED I.EXDU AND MADI STOCK) KUO.M WEST COAST OE LAKE ALBERT 771 XTLOTTC NEGROES or. in til.' case of the IMasai iiroiicr. and i)erlia])S of the cave-dwelling tribes of Mount Elgon. low oliloni^ dwellings with flat roofs. The Nile ,tt''^ 421. LEXDU WO.MA.V (PKOBABLY OP MIXED LEXDU AXD MAUI STOCK) FROM WEST COAST Ob" LAKE ALBERT tribes build small granaries of wattle and daub, with a thatched roof similar to those existing throughout the greater part of Negro Africa. Tlie Bari, however, according to .Major Delme Eadclifie. Iniild thatched houses occasionally with a continuous descent of grass in tlie somewhat untidy fashion of the i'antu Negroes. The Lainka people (who, though somewhat akin to the Masai, nevertheless are Nilotic in many of their habits and customs) build funnel-shaj)ed '• flounced " roofs of great height. Aniong>t the Acholi the framework of house and roof is in one piece, NILOTIC NEGROES / /•-) like a huge bamboo basket. They also add porches of wattU^ and daub in front of the doors of their houses, somewhat like those of the forest negroes in the Semliki Valley. The sketch plan in Fig. 423 will show the general arrangement of the interior of an Acholi house. Above the space where the grindstone is kept there is a jtlatform of stout poles, under the roof, where firewood is stacked. The sleeping dais is of hard mud, and raised one foot above the level of the floor. The jars that are placed round a portion of the wall are used to contain dried grain and other articles of food or equipment. The fireplace is a narrow, semi- circular trench. The interior of the walls in these Acholi huts is daubed with black mud. the surface being made remarkably smooth. On this grey or black surfiice bold designs are painted in red. white, or pale grey. These designs are either geometrical patterns or conventional iigm'es of men or lieasts, such as the girafie. The giraffe appears very often in these decorations, and not infrequently the figure of a man is placed just above the giraffe's head. This indicates that the owner of the hut has killed a giraffe. A similarly arranged interior to that of the Acholi huts is met with in slightly \arying degree among the ^ladi and Bari. The I'ari people. *■ r ta. 422. IN A D.i.NKA Ml.l.Ar.E (to show MODK OF THATCHING HITS LHAKAI TKK1>T1C OF THE XU,E NEGROE.s) owing to various causes, have been of late mi.-erable and poverty-stricken, and are therefore inclined now to put u[) ramshackle dwellings of a very VOL. II. 20 770 MLOTIC XEGllOES 423. GROUND PLAN OF AX ACHOLI HOUSE low order of architecture, with interior arrangements showing no attempt at comfort or order- liness. The Acholi always make beds of skins on the top of the raised sleeping platform, hut the Bari frequently sleep on tlie bare mud. Nearly all the Nile villages are surrounded by thorn hedges. In the Lango and Acholi countries there is a good deal of stockading witli stout poles. The ^Niadi dig a deep trench round their villages, throwing u}) the earth on the inner side into a parapet. x\ll along the top of this parapet is planted a stout stockade of poles. Outside the INIadi villages there is always a smooth dancing place, in the middle of which a flagstaff is planted. The food of these Nile peoples is largely vegetable, and they are all industrious agriculturists. They cultivate the red sorghum, and. to a lesser extent, the white ; the ground-nut (in very large quantities). sesamum (the oil of which is much used), the eleusine grain, and also a true millet which penetrates very rarely to the regions nearer the Victoria Nyanza. They cultivate two or three kinds of beans and peas like the Indian "dhal."' Sweet potatoes are abandantly grown in Lango, where there are as many as six different varieties. !Maize is cultivated in many parts, and pumpkins and gourds are unixersal. No sugar- cane is met with. ]\lost of the Nile peoples make much use in their diet of wild fruits, which they obtain from the thin, scattered forests of the open country. There is a wild vine the grapes of which are eaten. Tobacco is universally cultivated, but. when dry. it is mixed with cow- dung, and this somewhat evil-smelling combination is smoked in pipes. It is not taken as snuff except amongst the Lango. The Nile peoples, like most Central African Negroes, are very fond of white ants as food Avhen the males are in the winded stage. The Eari do not ]i\iiit at all. except hippopotamuses, which they attempt to spear in the water from rafts of ambatch. The Bari do a great deal of fishing, and amongst otlier ways of procuring fish they visit shallow creeks and inlets of rivers, cut off the neck of the inlet with a NILOTIC XEGROES / / 1 stockade, and then })ass tlieir sjiears rej)eatedly backwards and fcjnvards througli the water, and in this way they shry larg-c nnnd)ers of a raud-loving 'tirrcnnTs. The other Nile peoples hunt witli doirs, and attack the game with spears. The Acholi surround large areas with a succession of nets, each about twenty yards long. When rather more than a semi- circle has thus been netted in. a number of s[)earmen squat down alon^" the outer side of the nets while others rush into the enclosure, set fire to the herbage, and drive the game before them against the nets, where numbers of beasts are speared by the men awaiting their arrival on the other side of the net. Xot many of these Nile tribes keep fowls. All of them keep goafs, sheep, and caJAh;, the cattle being invariably of the humped zebu tvpe. Not a few of these cattle from the Lango and Acholi countries have the horns curiously crossed at their points. All these Nile tribes mix cow's urine with the milk when drinking the latter. They also make butter from milk, but use it chiefly as an ointment. In tea rf are the Acholi use spears with a short, narrow blade, and long, narrow shields made of giraffe, ox. or rhinoceros hide.-' The four projecting corners of the sliield are finished with small and elegant knobs. The strong stick which is fa-tened up and down along the inner middle of the leather shields projects at both ends. At the top of the shield the projecting portion is decorated with a large pompon of black ostrich feathers. The outer surface of the shield is ornamented at regular in- tervals with handsome little brass knobs. Among the Lango. in place of these brass knobs, there are generally thin bands of iron. The Aluru. who dwell to the north-west of Lake Albert. hav(^ no spears, but fight with bows and arrows. The Eari and Latuka use spears only. The Lango and Umiro confine them- selves chiefly to assegais, or throwing-spears. None of these people have swords like the * 111 shape like those of tlio Turkaiia. See Yis. 47o. 424. sid.vnkse skllinu kkiku TEKjuTiis (whitk ant>) 778 NILOTIC NEGROES Masai ••>iiiic."" hut i^n'in Tally cari-y short knives, and sometimes a knife cmv.'d like a seiinitar. They all of them possess knobkerries, or clubs. Pooi-lookiui^ (lui^-out ciiiives are used on tlie rivers and lakes, but the people irenerally ])refer the raft made of ambatch or papyrus bundles. A i^-ood deal of clever hashehuovh is made by the Bari, Latuka. and Acholi. Most of these p(H)ple work iron with the smelting furnace, forge, and bellows already described in connection with the Bantu races. Their tnusical instru- ments consist of antelope or ox horns, drums, flutes, and a small stringed in- strument which is some- thing like a zither. This usually consists of the shell of a tortoise covered with a tight piece of skin, over which five or six strings are strained, with a liridge in the middle. With regard to the condition of their vjomen, female cliastity liefore puberty is not much regarded, though it is generally considered reprehensible if more than what might be termed '• philandering" takes place between the sexes. Adultery with a married woman is re- garded as a serious crime. The marriage ceremony is usually preceded by a more or less elaborate courtship, and the good- will of the girl's motlier nuist be won by the making of repeated presents, which may last over a period of two or tlu'ee years. There are no special ceremonies or superstitions that accompany the birth of a child. Twins are considered to be very lucky. The women are prolific, but infant mortality is consichn-able. large numbers of children dying from malavi.d fever. If a woman has had three or four or more daughters before she gives l)irth to a son (the people preferring male children to girls), the 425. HEAD OF lilKEDI OX WITH CKOSSED HORNS FRO.M LANGO COUNTRY, CENTRAL PROVINCE NILOTIC XEGROES 770 son under those conditions, when he ^rows up. has attributed to him th<' iiiarriage-jjrice of his sisters, which V)ecoines his own property. As regards the naming of children, it is considered verv unlucky to give a good or well-sounding name at birth. ("hikhen are therefore called by contemptuous or even disgusting appellations ("Piece of Dung"' being a not infrequent name), or are given the names of beasts, such as dog, leopard, giraffe, and so forth. After deatli women are seldom buried. Their corpses are generally thrown to the hvanas. ^Nlen. on the other hand, arc invarialily buri(Ml. and generally in a trench dug outside the door of their liouse, where their corpse is laid in a - sleeping position. The people have only the vaguest notion of a God — in fact, some of these tribes are said to have no actual conception of an overruling Deity. There is some worship or rememlirance of ancestors amongst them, chiefly evidenced by little I'etish temples— conical roofs of thatch over a circle of upright sticks — to be found in most of the villages. Kound about these temples they will tie long loops of string, li-oin wliieh pieces of grass hang downwards. The medicine men are generally the chiefs. They have much the same omens as those that are described in the preceding chapter among the Kavirondo. The x\choli in their dances imitate beasts somewhat elaborately. They generally sing and dance at the same time, and the men carry small drams under the arm. which they tap with the fingers. The manners and customs of the Ja-luo. a fragment of the Nilotic peoples which is now isolated, are verv similar to those of the Aluru (to the north-west of the Albert Nyanza) and tlie Japalua (incorrectly called '•Shefalu"), who live in the northern part of I'nyoro. It would seem, indeed, as though at some time or other the Ja-luo of Southern Kavirondo had not come down direct from the north-west, from the Lango country where their nearest relations reside at the present day. but that a large tribe of Nilotic people closely allied to the Acholi and Lango had formerly A LAXGO CHIEK WEARING KAUKI SHELLS HELMET OF 780 NILOTIC NEGROES inlialtiti'd X(irtli«'iii I'liyoro (whcvt' a fVagiiu:'nt of them remains), and that the Hiihima and their IJantu sulijeots drove this branch of the Nilotic |»('(>]il(' across the Alhcrt Nile to the north-west (where they remain as the Ahirii) and intu I'lisoga (across the Victoria Nile) on the south-east. From lUisoga they appear to have Ijcen driven on by the l^antu right tlirough the Kavirondo country until they linally settled and throve round the shores of Kavirondo l^ay. where they at present bear the name of .hi-hio or Nvifwa. It is a remarkalile fact tliat the Ja-luo to tins dav are WHITE NILE caHed l)y their JJantu neigldjours '• Abanyoro,"' which would indicate that this theory of their origin is correct. The Ja-luo reside in fixed villages of from ten to fifty huts, which are .Miirounded by hedges of aloe and euphorbia. Formerly they built mud or stone walls round their settlements in imitation of the Bantu Kavirondo to the north. Eut this is a custom which has now died out. The houses are similar in appearance to those of the Bantu tribes around them, as is the arrangement about the two fireplaces. Young unmarried girls usually sleep together in one large hut under the care of an old woman. The yoimg men and boys of the village also sleep by themselves, generally NILOTIC NEGROES 781 near the entrance to the viUage, so that they can watch over anv attempt to steal cattle. The hut which is directly opposite the gate of tlie village is usually that of the })rincipal wife of the village head-man. There is much the same superstition as among the Bantu Kavirondo aliout slmtting the door of a house behind a person who has just left it. Unmarried men go naked. ^larried men who have cliildrcn wcnr a 428. HUSB.VXD AND WIKE, JA-LUI small piece of goat skin, which, tliough quite inadequate for purposes of decency, is, nevertheless, a very important thing in etiquette; for a married man with a child must on no account call on his mother-m-law without wearing this piece of goat skin. To call on her in a state of absolute nudity would be regarded as a serious insult, only to be atoned for by the payment of goats. Even if under the new dispensation a man 782 NILOTIC XEGHOES wears Knroi^'au trousoi-s, he inutration (Fig. 430). The Ja-luo. together with tribes remotely allied in origin, such as the Sfik and Lango. ornament the outer rim of the ear in a remarkable manner. About fifteen small holes are pierced along the edge of the cartilage, and a flattened ring of brass (looking in shape rather like a melon seed) is inserted. Hanging on the outer side of the brass ring is a large blue glass bead. In the lowest hole towards the lobe a plain brass ring is inserted. Eegarding these blue beads ]Mr. Hobley writes : •• Por a long time I thought these blue beads were ordinary trade beads of the variety known as 'kiketi'; but upon inquiry I found this idea was indignantly repudiated. It was explained to me that the beads were picked up in the fields in the neighbourhood of the ^hu-agolia Hills * after a heavy thunderstorm, and it was believed that they descended with the rain." Some of the chiefs also Avear bits of jasjjer and chalcedony with a fine circular hole. These beads were formerly of great value, and were purchased at the rate of one cow jjer bead. They are said to- have been picked u}i in the same way. Their name for these beads is * In North Kaviroiulo. 781 XILOTIC NEGROES '• iiyaluo." It is thought In' some authorities that these ha\e wandered down in jiast as^^es from the direction of Ki^ypt — in fact, some of the 431- -V JA-LUO MAX WITH EAK-KIXG? more northern Nihjtic peoples declare that they came from the north or north-east. I imagine that the original possessors of these beads made considerable settlements in the neighbourhood of the Marairolia Hills NILOTIC NEGROES 785 uiul tliat the l^^ads were con^^taiitly being dr<»pi;ed and lost in tlie fields. After floods the loosened soil might expose to sight some of the beads which had tlius lieen dro})})ed or thrown away. I'lie supply of these l)lue 432. A JA-LIO MAX wnu EAK-KlNtiS beads is, of course, quite inadequate for the population, and many are making up for the scarcity now by using the ordinary l)lue beads of commerce. The Ja-luo men often wear an arndet of threaded cylindrical wooden NILOTIC NEGHOES 787 blocks on tlu^ uppin- part of tlie arm. The wooden Mocks arc coknired red with oxide of iron. A band stiunii;- with small ])i(^ces of wood of the same colour is sometimt^s woi'u round tlie forehead. Some of the married men wear a semi-cirele of ivory on the forehead, made of the split canine teetli of the hi})po[)otamus. (The tooth, however, I am informed, is not split, but ground down until it is only an eigjith of an inch thick.) Others wear the tusks of a wart-hog. The .la-luo men. like most of the trihes of Nilotic origin, frec|uently adopt a curious stork-like attitude, standing on some hillock or ant-hill on one leg with the other leg bent and the sole of the foot apposed to the inner side of the knee of the leg on which the body is poised. They usually wear sandals of leather when travelling. The Ja-luo live much by (KjvlcuUure. They cultivate sorghum.. s\ve following day the biidegroom's brothers, and his other wives, if he has any, take the newly wedded wife back to her father's \illage, where there is another great feast. The bridegroom dees not attend. The father of the girl next day presents his daughter with a goat, and she returns to her husband, who continues to make };ayn;ents to his father-in-law. The total amount of the marriage payment may reach to six cows, or their e(piivalent. If the man stops paying, his wife will leave him and go back to her father's ^■illage until the payments are resumed. If within a year of the marriage the wonjan does not bear a child, the husband may stop Ids ])ayments. but he has no claim to the return of what has been already paid, so long as iiis wife remains witli him. If a wife dies witliout having l)orno children, the amount ]iaid for her is returned, unless the husband agrees to acce})t one of his deceased irifes sisters, for whom only a small comjilimt^ntarv present is paid. If a woman refuses to stop with her husliand. she is given to another man, and whatever this man gives for her is paid over to her fir>t husband. If a woman has a child juid is ill-ti-eated, she may leave her husband, but must leave her child behind with i he father. If the child lie a boy. wIkmi he grows up and the mother gets old she generally returns to live with her son. If after a marriage has Ixen arranged an a\ari( ions lather is loth to }»art with his (laughter, the young man employs b.is friends to waylay the girl in the ^. 437- mkiucim: man fho.m nyakach, sovni SlllK OF KAVUIONDO BAY 794. NILOTIC NEGHOES a dead person shave their heads for three days after the death. The eldest son of the deceased sits on a stool outside the village, and has his head shaved. If any one of importance dies, the neighbours do not cultivate for three days after the death. If a big chief dies, all the surrounding peo})le collect at the village, and in such cases even hostilities between clans are suspended, and all join in the funeral rites of the late cliief. even if he happens to be at war with some of his dependent clans. In the case of the death of a chief, a new hut is built. The grave of the chief is dug by his brother. A new ox hide is placed at the bottom of the grave, and the head of the corpse is covered with a water-pot. Seeds of every kind of gi-ain grown in the vicinity are put into the grave, but sweet potatoes are excluded. The people dance and drink '"tembo" for ten days, and slaughter many oxen. The men wail for ten days, but the women wail every morning for a year. No one cultivates the fields for ten days. When a man dies, his property goes to the brother, if the children are small. If the eldest son is grown up, he takes the property and gives his brothers a share, but a man is not allowed to take the amount paid by any one who marries one of his sisters. This marriage payment goes to the deceased father's brothers. The brothers of the deceased take his wives, but the eldest son probably takes the youngest wife of his deceased father. When a chief dies, the son whom he has chosen succeeds him. This successor is chosen really some years before the chief dies. The successor divides the private property of the chief with his brothers. When a warrior has killed a man in xvarfare, he must (besides shaving his head) catch a fowl and hang it round his neck head uppermost. He must not enter his home village until this has been done. Whilst the fowl is suspended to the man's neck by the beak its head is r^evered from the body, and the head is left hanging from the man's neck. The warrior then enters the village, and shortly afterwards prepares a big feast to propitiate the man he has killed, so that his ghost may not give trouble. If a house is struck by lightning, and any one is killed inside, the head-man of the village must obtain a male fowl of a red colour and walk round the house holding up the fowl three times. The house is then broken up, and the wood is used for other purposes. When desiring to make peace with another tribe with whom they have been at war, they kill a sheep and put part of it into a wooden mortar such as is used for crushing grain. The representatives of each side then take out ])ieces of the flesh and exchange them reciprocally. An old man belonging to the side which has been worsted, and which is suing for peace, must then go to the head village of the conqueror and proceed to sweep up the cattle kraal. This is accepted as a kind of submission. Like the Bantu Kavirondo, the Ja-luo are in the main a healthy people. NILOTIC NEGROES 71)5 They suffer not infrequently from pneumonia and other affections of the lungs, and their remedy for these maladies is to pierce a hole in the chest, and even to cut out a small piece of the inflamed lung. Thev have an antidote for snake poison ; remedies for diarrhoea, constipation, ulcers ; salves for wounds ; and even drugs which are taken to avert threatened miscarriage. Venereal disease is practically unknown amongst this people, which, although so indifferent to nudity, is yet too moral to jjermit sexual intercourse with strangers. ]Men and women have the same names. But in inanv instances r^' ' -"'»'■* ~"^^ 43S. THE GA.MK Ot' "'hAU," i'LAVi-il .iLL mhii t A.-> 1 < r.-Si uAl. .vruiiA. \iHK il.Aiti HERE ARE YAO SOLDIERS FROM BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA) whereas the root of the name is the same, it is preceded by the vowel •' 0 "' in the case of a man, and " A " in the case of a woman. For instance. " Opio " is a male name, and " Apio " is a female name. The games they play are few. There is the well-nigh universal game of little compartments in which seeds or pebbles are put. Boys and young men sometimes play a kind of hockey, knocking about a wooden ball. After the retm-n from a warlike expedition two out of every tbree cattle go to the chief, who divides his share with his brothers, and also gives a special reward of cattle to any man who has particularly distinguished him- self in war. To this hero a wife is often given for payment. CHAPTER XIX 3IASAI, TUBKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. ^Y^YW. ivniaining section of the Uganda population to be discussed in J- this ])ook is that offshoot of the Nilotic stock which includes the interesting Masai * people — a group of Africans rather isolated in their physical characteristics — the gigantic Suk and Turkana. the elegant, fine- featured Elgumi or "Wamia. and the Nandi tribes. With them also may be considered the negro Karamojo, with a Bantu physique and a language closely related to Turkana ; and the mongrel Andoi-obo,- a nomad hunting people speaking usually a dialect of Nandi. but composed of very Jiiixed physical ty})es. The present writer lielieves that the Masai represent an early mixture l)etween the Nilotic Negro and the Hamite (Gala-Somali). This blend of })eoples must have been isolated somewhere in the high mountains or plateaux which lie between the Nile and the Karamojo country. Here the ancestors of the Masai race were no doubt first located, and here the Latuka — descendants of the ancestral Masai — still remain, speaking a language that is closely allied to the Masai tongue. This ancient inter- mixture between Hamite and Negro must have been a strong power thousands of years ago in the mountainous region east of the White Nile between Latitudes S"" and 5\ They subjugated a section of the Nilotic Negroes (the Bari) and imposed on them a corru[)t dialect of the 3Iasai stock (the ]Masai itself being a branch of the Nilotic family much modified by Hamitic influence^. Some tumultuous movement from the norths possibly on the part of other Nilotic Negroes like the Dinka and Shiluk, or else intertribal warfare or famine consequent on drought, drove the ancestors of the modern Masai from the mountainous region ea-t of the White Nile in the direction of Mount Elgon and Lake Rudolf. After a prolonged settlement on the lands lying between this great extinct volcano and the south-west coasts of Lake Kudolf. the Masai became divided into two groups— evidently not a very ancient division, since both sections speak practically the same language at the present * Tills word sliould he "pronounced " :Ma's;ii" with a strong accent on the first svllal.le. -.S - 43c). UWAS' MJlSlir MASAI (HOW.MEN) 71)8 MASAI, TURKANA, 8UK, NANDI, ETC. (lav. The more powerful of these divisions reverted to a wholly ])astoral life, a semi-nomad existence, and a devotion to cattle which caused them to raid and ravish in all directions to obtain and maintain enormous herds. The weaker Masai — subsequently to be known as the Burkeneji. (iwas' Xgishu* (literally a contraction of Gwaso Engishu), Nyarusi (EnjamusifJ, Kwavi — lost the greater part of their oxen in the tribal war which took }»lace between the agricultural and pastoral sections. Some of the agricultural ^hisai remained living on the Gwas' Xgishu Plateau (Rohata Xyukij till they were expelled by the Nandi and forced to take refuge among the Bantu Kavi rondo. A branch of them (Essegelli) settled in the upper half of the Nvando Valley between the Nandi and Lumbwa country, only to be finally wiped out by these fierce mountaineers. The Nyarusi clan of agriculturists found a refuge at the south end of Lake Baringo. The Burkeneji, who remain to this day the most primitive of all the Masai, were driven by the Turkana-Siik some fifty years ago from the western coast-lands of Lake Eudolf to the inhospitable country on the south and south-east of that lake. Meantime the pastoral Masai had taken possession of the southern half of the Rift Valley, of the Laikipia Escarpment (which bounds that valley to the north-east), and, in fact, of the greater part of inner East Africa, from L'gogo and the L'nyamwezi countries on the west and south to Mount Kenya and Galaland on the north, and eastward to the hundred-mile strip of more or less settled Bantu country on the littoral of the Indian Ocean. Prospering mightily and increasing in numbers by reason of their valour and their dedication of all the young able-bodied men of the tribe to fighting for at least twelve years of their manhood, the pastoral Masai became the lords of East Africa about seventy or eighty years ago. When they invaded Eastern Africa, they probably found the Nandi-Lumbwa people in possession of the plateau region west of the Rift Valley ; the Bantu in the plains and forests ; and lingering remains of the old Dwarf nomad tribes in the dense woods or more arid tracts, who were allied to the South African Bushman or Hottentot. The ancestors of the Nandi tribe to a great extent held their own against the Masai invasion, but the Bantu only survived in the dense forests of Kikuyu and in the lands bordering the Victoria Xyanza. the Indian Ocean, the slopes of Kenya and Kilimanjaro, and in the somewhat arid Kamba country. Not a few of these Bantu races, like the Wa-gogo. Wa-chaga. A-kikuyu. and, to some extent, the A- kamba. have become thoroughly imbued with * This name in Masai— "Gwaso" or " Hwaso Engishu" — means '"Eiver (of) Cattle." It is now taken to refer to the uninhabited plateau region due east of ]\b>unt Elgon and north of Nandi. t Enjanuisi means " wizards." ""^•■■^tUL 440. PA!STOKAL MASAI (WAKUIOUs) OF NAIVASHA 800 MASAI, TUllKANA, SUK, XANDI, ETC. the ."Masai nietliods and customs of warfare, even thonq-h tliey may still retain their n»'i,M'o features and ];antu languages. When the Maskat Arabs first commenced the trading operations which led to tlieir ojjening up tlie interior of Eastern Africa (about 1835), they already found that tlie INIasai were a serious obstacle. They were a proud people, wlio would not stand the slightest bullying or maltreatment on the part of the Aral)s or their l)lack mercenaries, and a few wholesale massacres of Arab caravans by the ]\Iasai warriors gave the coast traders a dread (which frequently degenerated into panic) of these lithe fighters, armed with spears of great lengtli or great breadth. In the earlier 'fifties of the last century the Masai raided to within sight of the Island of ^Mombasa. Their successful progress in the north was checked by the Gala and Somali, and by the aridity of the desert country north of the Tana Eiver. Southwards the Masai might have carried their raids towards Tanganyika and Xyasa. but they encountered a tribe as warlike as themselves — the Wa-hehe, who had been virilised by a slight intermixture of Zulu blood, the result of a celebrated return to Central Africa on the part of a small section of the Zulu people in the first decades of the nineteenth century. The Masai probably reached their apogee about 1880. Since that time they have greatly declined in numbers, power, and pugnacity, owing to the repeated cattle plagues that swept down through Eastern Africa and destroyed so large a proportion of the cattle, which to the pastoral Masai were the one source of food. Before this jjeriod, however, a section of of them had, in raiding, returned to tiieir original home on the Xandi highlands, and had sorely cut up the agricultural Masai — the Gwas' Ngishu — who still remained there. Scattered bands of these vegetarian .Masai took refuge at the south end of Lake Earingo and amongst their Burkeneji brothers near Lake Kudolf, and even fled so far afield in their panic as to reach parts of East Africa not far from the Indian Ocean, such as Taveita, at the eastern base of Kilimanjaro. These settlements of agricultural ]Masai in that direction were called by the Swahili traders "Kwavi," a name that no ^NJasai can recognise or explain, but whicli has been perpetuated owing to its adoption by Krapf. The furious attacks of the N'andi and lAimbwa aided the extinction of the agricultural Masai. That brancli of them called the " Segelli," wliich was established in tiie I'pper Nyando ^'alley, was completely extinguished, and all the villages on tlie Gwas' Xgishu Plateau were destroyed, the remnant of the Gwas' Xgishu flying to the borders of Kavirondo.-^^" At the present day, therefore, the .Masai are represented mainly by their pastoral section, which still ranges over Eastern Africa from the equator to six or seven degrees * Tliey are now established in fiourishiiig settlements under the white man's protection at tlie Kldania IJavine. ^4t. KNJAMl'8I (XVAKlSl) At-iHICLI.Tl, li.VI- J'ASAl 802 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. r m^i^smku^ibmrnmu^'AW. 442. A JlA.SAl WAKKIOK (NAlVASllA) south. The re- mainder of the race, which culti- vates the soil (keeping flocks and herds as wellj, is reduced to a small liut increas- ing remnant of the Gnu IS Xgis/iu, the Nyarusi (or En- jdinusi) iNJasai at the south end of Lake Bar in go, and tlie perishing Bur- keneji on the south and south-east of Lake Rudolf. The true Masai as a race are tall, ivell-iriade people, slender and lissom, with no exaggerated muscular develop- ment, and little or no tendency to corpulence. They are long limbed, and the feet and hands are re- latively greater than among p]uro- peans, though the feet are smaller and better formed than among the I'antu Negroes. They have no marked progna- thism, and the nose is sometimes MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. H(n almost Caucasian in shape, with a well-developed bridge and finely cut nostrils. The chin is well formed, and the cheek-bones are not ordinarily as bulging as in the Nilotic Negro. Tlie lips are sometimes prominent and nmcli everted. The front teeth in the upper jaw are long, and are occasionally se})arated one from the other by a small space. The gum is often visible when the lips open, and the front teeth stick out. The mouth, in fact, is the least pleasant feature in the face of a ^lasai, the rest of whose face is sometimes modelled on quite a Caucasian i)lan. Almost all the men and 4IHf.W««.«i',{|iJ.. 443. A MA- \1 WAKKIOK (NAIVASHa) most of the women knock out the two lower incisor teeth. jNIr. Sidney Hinde states that the reason given by the :Mas:ii for this practice is that tetanus was once a scourge amongst them, and that it was found to be a com- paratively simple matter to feed a man suffering from lockjaw if food could be introduced through the gap caused by taking out two of his lower incisor teeth. It may be this explanation has been invented recently to explain a very ancient custom inherited liy the Masai from the Nilotic stock which was their origin; for amongst these people the removal of the lower incisor teeth is a very common practice. All the hair of the face and body is plucked out in both sexes by means of iron tweezers, so that 801. :\rAs.\i. rrnxANA, stjk, nandt, etc. 444. TATTOOINC HULNJ) A MASAI WOJIAN ts EYES 110 male Masai is ever seen with beard and moustache. The hair of the head is shaved liy the women, and by the married men who have ceased to be warriors. It is even removed in the same way from the heads of children; but when a ]\lasai youth lias reached 2)u1:»erty, and is about to become a warrior, he allows the hair of his head to grow as long as it will. Tugging at the wool, and straighten- ing it as far as lie is able, he plaits into it twisted bast or thin strips of leather. In this way the hair, with its artificial accoinjianiments, is plaited into a number of wisps, and these, coated with red clay and mutton fat, are gathered into pigtails, or ijiteues, the largest of which hangs down over the back, while another droops over the forehead, and there may be one over each ear. The ends of tliese queues are tightly bound round with string, which, like all the rest of the coiffure, is thickly coated with grease and ochre. The whole of the body in the young warriors is constantly anointed with the same proportion of reddisli clay and fat, with the result that they have quite a raddled appearance, and look like statues in terra-cotta; for everything about them may be coated with this preparation of a uniform yellowish red. The Masai practise circumcision, and the clito7ns in the women is excised. Iloth tliese operations take place just before puberty, between eight years and fifteen years of age. The circumcision of the jNIasai has been described in Joseph Thomson's celebrated book. It may be stated briefly that it differs from the same operation elsewhere in Africa in that the frcenuw is also cut, and that a portion of the prcBputium is drawn down below the gl an s, where it heals in a large excrescence of skin. Tiiis is sometimes so tumid as to give the organ the ap}>earance of being provided with a double glans. The Masai men do not mar or decorate their skins with patterns in scdVH or in tatloolH;/; but I have noticed on the faces of the won)en in the Naivasha District that ])arallel lines (see illustration) are apparently burnt on the skin round the eves or on the forehead. I could not MASAI, TURKAXA, SUK, XANDI, ETC. 805 ascertain whether this was done with a red-hot win- or l^v some acrid juice. The scars liad a bhiish h)ok, and were intended to enhance the brilliancy of the eye. Tlie women ordinarily remove the eyelashes and the hair fi-oni the eyebrows. In both sexes the ears are terribly d(-rormed by piercini^ the lobe at an early ajre and inserting through the hole larger and larger discs or rounded pieces of wood. These are gradually increased in size until the lolie becomes a great loop of leatlierv skin. 445. -MASAI ELDER WITH EUR CAPE To this loop they attach ear-rings of tine iron chain or European nails and screws, or depending coils of iron wire like catherine-wheels. Tht- ear is also pierced in the upper part of the conch, near what is called '-Darwin's point." From this hole also may depend loops of fine iron chain or .strings of beads. The men may wear bead necklaces and bead armlets. On the up})er part of the left arm, just below the deltoid muscle, is a tight armlet of wood, which gi'ips the flesh, and is furnished with two u[)right projections. A string of cliarms, which may be pieces of smooth stone_ or 806 MASAL, TUllKAXA, StJK, NANDI, ETC. of liard, smooth wood of irregular size, is generally worn round the neck by the men. who may also have a girdle round the waist composed of a strintr of heads with fine iron chains. Bracelets of iron wire or of ivory may r.lso be worn by the men on the wrists. As regards clothing the two sexes differ considerably. Women from girlhood to old age are usually clothed most scrui)ulou>ly, though it is not 440. MASAI WOMAN OF NAIVASHA considered im^iroiier to expose tlie bosom. Their garments were formerly dressed hides which hung from the neck down to the knees, with a kind of leather petticoat uiiderneatli. Nowadays many of the women dispense with leather and wear voluininous pieces of calico from tlie coast. Old men generally wear a skin or a cloth cape over the shoulders. Hitherto men, old and young, of the ]Masai tribe have been absolutely indifferent as to whether sucli covering as they wore answered purposes of decency. \ .>.*• 808 MASAI, TUllKANA SUK, NANDI, ETC. Tliev iniirlit even be styled ostentatiously naked in this respect, though I have never known them to be guilty of any gesture of deliberate indelicacy. Young warriors going to battle swathe round their waists as many yards of red calico as they can get hold of, and will further throw pieces of calico over their shoulders as capes. They also wear huge mantles of birds' featliers. in shape and volume like the fur capes worn by coachmen in cold weather. A great circle of ostrich plmnes is often worn round the face. When decorated for warfare, they tie fringes of long white hair tightly below the knee, generally on one leg — the left. This white hair is either derived from goats or from the skin of the colobus monkey. !>ome of the eastern Masai make handsome capes of the black and white colobus fur, which are worn over the chest. Unmarried girls may wear a few bracelets, bnt as soon as a young Masai woman, or " dito," is about to marry, she has coils of thick iron wire wound round her legs (as in the illustration). She will also wear armlets and bracelets of this same wire, and perhaps an additional armlet or two of ivory. Huge coils of the same thick iron wire may be worn round the neck in addition to the " catherine-wheel " ornaments and uncounted strings of beads. Or she may have round her neck a great fringe of leather thongs, to which are fastened large beads. Some of their sup})le leather garm.ents are charmingly sewn with beads as an edging. The young men do not disdain sometimes to clothe themselves in one of these huge cloaks of ox hide, which may cover them from the neck to the ankles. The men wear .sandals of hide, especially when travelling. The divellhigs of the Maides: cooking-pots and skins are long gourds used as milk vessels, half-gourds which are cups, and small three-legged stools cut out of a single block of hard wood and used by the elder men to sit on. The agricultural Masai live in their villages permanently. The pastoral Masai are inclined towards a semi-nomad existence, no doubt witli the intention of seeking fresh pasture for their cattle. They generally, however, range within certain prescribed districts. They will often abandon a settlement for a time, and have no objection to other persons using it in their absence, providing they are ready to evacuate it without having done any harm on the return of the original owners. Formerly the warriors among the pastoral Masai, from the time they reached the age of puberty until they retired from the warrior existence and became married men, lived in villages by themselves with their mothers and sweethearts. The mothers kept house for them, and the young unmarried women attended to very little else but pleasure, though they superintended tiie young calves which were left behind in the settlements when the cattle were driven out every moiiiing to [lasture. A few boys would hang about these warrior villages, their presence being tolerated for their usefulness in herding cattle and milking coavs and goats. With the general break-up of the ]Masai system of paste ral life which has come- about througli the repeated cattle plagues and the European administration; of their countrv, they are rapidly beginning to live more after the normal negro fashion, in villages inhabited alike by married and unmarried men, girls and married women. Every village elects a head-man, who. settles all disputes and acts as kader of the warriors in case of any fighting. Neither agricultural nor pa>toral Masai are hiniers of f/ame in the same 5 %^ i 812 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. sense as tlic cither Nei^ro tril)es of the Protectcnite. The gro\vu-u}) men never innh >t zehras, antelopes, or harmless wild beasts, tliough boys may s(.m( tiini's caiitiire the fawns of gazelles, and are also given to the 450. HUUSKS UF THE AGRIC'ULTUKAL MASAI (E.\,J A.ML Si) shooting of birds with arrows, as birds' feathers are required for certain of their ceremonies or for the making of head-dresses or capes for the warriors. The Masai, however, regard the buffalo, eland, and kudu (the eland especially) as being closely related to their own cattle — in fact, the Inift'alo they regard as simply the wild ox, and the eland as being a. thorough bovine. The buffalo is now nearly extinct in the countries inhabited by the Masai, but in former times they would attack it with spears (many \\arriors taking part in the hunt) and kill it in order to obtain leather for making their shields. The eland and kudu are not far off extinction also, but in former days the Masai ate the flesh of the eland and killed the kudu in order to obtain the horns of the male, which are in great request as trumpets. The pastoral Masai not only do not fisJt in any of the lakes and rivers, but they regard fish as a mo^t unwholesome food. The agricultural ^Masai obtain fish by trapping and s})earing, and eat it ill imich the same way as do their Bantu neighbours. The agricultural Masai also keep a few fowls, and eat them, together with MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, XANDI, ETC. 813 their egg^ ; but fowls and eggs are absolutely eschewed by the pastoral Masai, who never keep this domestic bird. The domestic animals of both divisions of this race are cattle, slieep, goats, donkeys, and dogs. The cattle are of the humped zebu type, and do not differ in any important respect from the other humped domestic cattle of Eastern Africa. As the mainstay of their existence, the pastoral Masai attach enormous importance to their herds of cattle ; and these animals, having been brought up from birth under the constant handling of man, woman, and child, are extremely docile to their owners, with the sole exception of mifk-giving. Here the ^Nlasai cow> as is so often the case among the domestic cattle of Africa, is capricious, and. from a European point of view, very tiresome. Slie will withhold her milk invariably if the calf is not present to her sight or sense of smell; 3'et her senses are easily deceived, inasmuch as she will often yield milk when a stuffed calf is held before her, even if it be little more than the skin of the dead calf roughly filled out with straw. The milking of the cows is usually done by the women twice a day, and generally in a special building erected in the village — a building in which the young calves are kept at night. In the warriors' villages, however, milking is 451. A V1LL.U.E OK THE AGKICLI.TIKAL MASAI ( EN.IA.ML .^l) sometimes done by the boys who herd tlie cattle; and all Masai men are adepts at milking both cows and goats, for which reason they are much in request as herdsmen in the employ of Europeans. The Masai 814 MASAI, TUllKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. castralt' their catth- \\]\vu llic youn^- Inills are arrived at maturity. An interesting descri^jtion of their procedure in this case is given by Dr. J. R. Stordy (Government A'eterinary Surgeon) in the Veterinarian* A l)arren cow is not an infreijuent occurrence in the Masai herds, and such animals are selected fur fattening and slaughter, as their meat is considered to he b( tter eating than that of the bullocks. The milk is generally kept in long. bottle-sha])(>d gourds with leather covers. !\Iilk is always druid< fresh, and the gourds that contain it are carefully cleanetl witli burning grass or with a sbghtly acrid liquid made from the leaves of a sage-like i)lant. These methods of cleaning the gourd some- times impart a flavour to the milk not altogether agreeable to the 452. MASAI CATTLE, NAKCKO European }ialate. The cattle are always branded with some mark peculiar to the owner, who may also cut their ears in some special way so that the jieast may be easily recognised as his own property. After coming back from the pasture the cattle are carefully examined, generally in close contact with a large smoky fire, so that the ticks may be removed from their bodit-s. The cattle are perfectly amenable to small boys, who usually act as the cowherds. The rjoafs and sheep belong to the breeds common to so much of Central Africa— the goat being small and plump, with short horns, while the sheep are hairy, hornless, with drooping ears and fat tails, though * October, 1900. SIG MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, XAXDI, ETC. tilt' flit tail is not caiTied to sucli n dcveloinn nt as among the Bahinia or in Southern Africa. Great care is taken of the lambs and kids till tbej are al^out a month old. They are suckled l)v their mothers twice a day^ 1^'5 ^- K*^*- 454. MASAI SHi but in the interval and during the night are usually kept apart in rounds beehive huts of open basketwork and thatched roofs, these huts beings raised on poles about two feet above the ground. Y-lien the lambs and kids grow ohh-r, thev aie allowed first of all to wander freely about the MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 817 village (luiing- the cla\tiiiu', and when half ^towh usiiallv acc'oiii])anv their motliers to the pasture. Tiie Masai f're(|neiitly jiossess herds of (/onkei/s, and the.-e are driven in at night within tlie thorn enclosure, though allowed otherwise to wander ahc-ut uuhanniercfl insi(h^ the village. The as.s of the ."\lasai is the oi'dinarv wild ass (the origin of our domestic dc^nkey) of North-Eastern Africa {Equas itiniiojjus) ; indeed, it is almost impossible to see any difference between the wild ass of Nubia and the Egyjjtian Sudan and the domestic 455. MASAI DONKEYS ass of the Masai, which has now become the common domestic ass of Ea^tern Africa and the Zanzibar coast-line. The African wild ass* is a large beast of a pinkish grey colour, with a whitish muzzle and black nose and lips. The mane is hlack, and so are the tips and rims of the ears. There is a black stripe all along the back to the end of the tail, and there is one broad stripe down each shoulder. Occasionally faint black stripes are seen on the legs. This animal is more nearly related to the wild asses of Asia than it is to the zebras of Africa. Its range in a wild * The Sonialiland fonu is a distinct si)ccics Avhich has no shoulder stripe, but on the other liand, is distinctly barred on the legs with black stripes. 818 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. state extends at the }»veseiit day from the coast of the Eed Sea westwards far into the Sahara Desert towards Lake Chad, and is bounded on the north by the southern frontier of Kgypt proper, and on the south approximately by the fourth degree of north Uititude. The wild ass is there- fore found within the northern limits of the Uganda Protectorate. The Masai — themselves no domesticators of wild animals — oljtained it from the Nilotic races, and they from the Hamites, further north. In all probability this ass was never domesticated by any Negro form of man, but by the Hamites — tribes related to the Gala, the Somali, and the ancient Egyptian. The ^lasai, however, received it as a domestic animal, and carried it in their wanderings far south into Unvamwezi, and eastwards towards the Zanzibar <'oast. In Unyamwezi the African donkey found another home, and spread from there towards Nyasaland. From this form (of course, by way of Egypt) the domestic asses of the world are mainly derived, though it is possible that in Western Asia there may have been some infusion of the blood of the wild asses of that region. The ^Nlasai use this donkey for ■carrying their effects when they move about from kraal to kraal. Dogs are not much in evidence now in the Masai kraals. Although they are supposed to assist in warning the 3Iasai of the approach of wild beasts, they are of little use in that respect, as, like most of the prick- eared curs in Negro Africa, they cannot bark, but only make a desolate howling not easily distinguished from the noise of the jackals outside. The food of the pastoral Masai varies according to the sex and status •of the individual. Y/omen and old men obtain by barter flom* and perhaps beans and green stuff. The young warriors subsist on nothing but milk, blood, and meat. The blood they obtain by regularly bleeding their cattle. The oxen are bled in the following manner : A leather ligature is tied tightly round the throat. Below this bandage an arrow is shot in by a warrior, and the shaft is generally blocked so that the arrow-head cannot penetrate far beyond tlie vein. The arrow is pulled out and the blood gushes forth. When enough blood has been collected in vessels, the ligature is removed and the orifice of the vein is stopped up by a paste of cow-dung and dust. The frothing blood is greedily drunk,* and is the only way in which the ]Masai warrior obtains the salt necessary to his well- being. Cows' blood is often thought to Ije (and no doubt is) a cure for dysentery. Masai warriors may eat the flesh of oxen, sheep, goats, or eland. 1'his meat is usually boiled in an eartlienware pot, and sometimes ■' Men wli(^ are not }ioor in cattle and siqiplies of milk generally mix sour or sweet milk with the blood and drink the two together. I was informed that only ]ioor men drink the umnixed blood, but I have frequently seen the young warriors, whether ])ii(jr or rich, bleeding the cattle, and immediately afterwards draining <;alal)ashes full of frothing bh^id hot from tl;e animal's l)odv. MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 81D medicine derived from herbs is mixed with it. The Masai women and old nmrried men eat pretty much what they like, and are allowed to- smoke tobacco ; but during pregnancy the women rarely touch meat, consuming at that time enormous quantitie.s of butter and milk. They also, when in this condition, eat fat, and believe that these oily substances will lubricate the passages and make delivery easier. Honey is eaten by every one who can get it. By mixing a little water with the honey an intoxicating mead is made, which is much drunk by the old men. 456. srKAUS OF .MASAI WAHKIKKS. (SOMK Of THE MEN' ARE I'l.AMNi. Ilii; -..vmI, ", DRAUGHTS, ILLUSTRATED OX P. 795) Tlie foregoing remarks about food apply mainly to the pastoral Masai ; the agricultural section does not hold quite so rigidly* to its special observances far the food of the young men as distinguislied from that of the elders or the women; and as these people are industrious agriculturists and rear large crops of grain, pumpkins, and beans, their diet is largely of vegetable substances, though they are as fond of meat as their pastoral kinsmen and enemies. Among the pastoral Masai only the women and the married men are allowed to smoke tobacco. Some of the ekhr men take tobacco mixed with potash as snuff. The iceajjons of the Masai consist of spears and shields, bows and 820 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. jurows, kii()l)kt'ni('s. and swords from a foot to eigliteeu inches long. The swords, whicli arc of a peculiar shape, like long and slender leaves — very narrow towards the hilt or handle, and at their broadest close to the 1i[) — are called '• sinie," and are of widespread use throughout North- Eastern Africa, where the tribes are of the same stock or have come under the influence of the Nilotic and Masai peoples. Tiie s[)ear varies in sliajje and size. There is a very short, broad-bladed type, which is generally carried by the youtlis. The warriors among- the Masai in the Kift Valley and else- where in the T'ganda Protectorate and the ad- joining parts of British East Africa carry a spear with an extremely long and. narrow blade. The head may be fully three feet long. When it is not carried for use, the tip of the blade is generally provided with a small cap ornamented with a tuft of black feathers. The sword is worn usually girt over the right thigh in a scabbard of leather. The knobkerry is generally twisted into the same leather belt worn round the abdomen. Bows and arrows are more in use by the agricultural ]\lasai ; amongst the pastoral })eople they are re- legated to the boys, who use a smaller bow and arrow for shooting birds. The ^lasai shield is very nearly an oval. It is made of ox hide or the skin of the ])uftalo. A piece of wood like the hooping of a cask, about an inch wide, is sewn very tightly round the edge of the oval piece of leather, while down the centre of the inside of the shield runs a broad lath ot wood. Tliis in the middle is detached from the concave surface, leaving a hollow between, through which the hand of the warrior can be passed. Nearly all .Masai shields are painted; perhaps in the case of \ MASAI WARRIOK WITH LOXfi SPEAR MASAI, TURKAXA, SUK, XAXDI, ETC. 821 some of tlie agricultural Masai the leather surface is left uncovered with colour. The colours used in painting these shields are red and white (made from ferruginous clay and kaolin), and black (charcoal), and some- times blue or yellowish brown, the source of these pigments being unknown to me.* The designs on the shields are most varied, and each clan or tribal division has its own. So many of the Masai having died through civil wars and thiM-esult- of the cattle plague, some of these tribes or clans have dwindled to a few scattered individuals. Among such a |)eople as the Gwas* Xgishu ]Masai, who, though still agriculturists, are to the full as brave and warlike as their pastoral kinsmen, very diverse patterns of shield decoration may be met with in the same company of warriors, the result, no doubt, of refugees from 458. BOWS Oi' GWAS' XGISHU MASAI extinguished clans having joined them from time to time. The designs on the shields of the Eastern Masai are well illustrated in ]\Ir. Hinde's book, " The Last of the Masai." .Some of these designs are also found within the Eift Valley. Others may be seen in my photographs. This type of Masai shield, with the bold designs in black, white, and red. extends to the south-east coast of the Victoria Xyanza (in common with other ]Masai weapons), among the Shashi people, who. though a B;intu tribe speaking a language related to Kinyamwezi. liave nevertheless adopted many ]Masai customs. The remarkable similarity also between the shields of the Zulu and the Masai has frequently attracted the attention of writers on Africa. The resemblance also extends to head- dresses and the leg ornaments of white hair. It is possible that the Zulu * Probably clays and ashes. S22 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. trilie. which was of Central African origin, niay have been at some period of its niii^ration in contact with the .Masai, and liave copied some of the customs of that race, from which it differs absolutely in language. The poHtical rotraiul of I>ritisli ami (feiium authority has })ractically put an end to the raids of the Masai on the Bantu and Nandi negroes, and has almost extinguished civil war amongst the Masai tribes; therefore, unless they go to war as the auxilia;ies of the Europeans (and of late then' iiave been more useful to the Uganda Administration as irregular troops), the modern Masai have little chance of fighting. In former days, before the Masai warriors, called •• El Morran," * started on an expedition, they would fortify their courage with a war medicine, which was said to be the hark of Acacia vemifjosa. This bark, when chewed, would make them either fiantic or stupefied, thus lulling any apjjrehensions. Once on the war-} at h. however, they were invariably brave, as public opinion would probalily visit any sign of cowardice with execution. The ^lasai warriors would travel as much as fifty miles a day at a constant trot. In old days they tliought nothing of going 300 miles — even 500 miles — to attack a peo])le or a district which was supposed to be rich in cattle. They would sometimes travel at night as well as in tlie daytime, but their favourite time of attack was just at dawn. In the first ardour of battle they would slay every man and boy witli their huge spears, but women were very rarely killed. It is stated that the ]Ma-ai have generally been in the habit of warning their enemies before making an attack on them, but I certainly remember myself in 1884 having re[;orted to me a great many instances of the ^Nlasai round Kilimanjaro taking or attempting to take Bantu villages wholly by surprise. No doubt in the case of tiibutary people a warning would be sent first that the overdue tribute must be paid up. and in the event of this notice remaining unheeded the warriors would descend on the rebellious vassal. The condition of women among the ^lasai offers another curious analogy to the Zulus. It is a condition which is not by any means peculiar to the [Masai, as was thought by earlier travellers, but is frequently met with in other negro races showing no near kinship to this people. The Masai warrior is not allowed by the elders of his tribe to marry until he has reached about thirty years of age, and has accumulated a fair amount of property, or else has so distinguished himself by his bravery as to merit an early retirement. But from the time of his reaching puberty till the date at which he is able to Uiairy he is by no means willing to live without the solace of female conipanionshi]). The young warrior, soon after attaining manhood (wlien the hair of his head, from ha\iug been ])reviously close sliavtn. is now allowed to grow until it can be * In the singular "01 Morani." 459- WAKRIORS OF THK GW.v VOL. II. 23 82i MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. tniiiifd into pigtails), goes round the villages of" the married people and selects one or two little girls of from eight to thirteen years old. To the mothers of tlie chosen damsels he makes numerous small presents, but 460. MASAI SHIELDS does not give cattle or sheep, these being reserved for the marriage gift. The mother raises little or no objection to his proposition if the girls like him, and he then carries off one, two, or it may be three, to the warriors' village or settlement. Here the young people indulge in sexual intercourse, which is considered in no way to be immoral, because the girls are under age, and therefore cannot conceive. When the girl is nearing womanhood, she leaves the warrior and goes back to her mother, and soon after the first menstruation the clitoris is excised, and the girl becomes a marriage- able woman who must live morally henceforward. If by chance a girl remains with a warrior and conceives by him, no undue fuss is made, though he may probably have to support the child, and may make up his mind eventually to marry the girl. If, likewise, whilst the girl remains immarried she has intercourse with any man and bears an illegitimate child, she does not incur much censure, and the matter is either settled by her marrying her seducer, or by the intended husband condoning the la]).M'. and taking over the child witli the woman wlien he finally marries her. The young girls who live in the warriors' settlements have as agreeable a time of it as can be provided in Masai society. They are supplied with food ; the mothers of the young men do all the cooking, and the girls A M \>Ai \\ AKKIOK. MASAI, TURKAXA, SUK, XAXDI, ETC. 82.J themselves spend their time in dancing, singing, adorning themselves, iind making love. After a woman is married — that is to say, is regularly bought by her husband — she is supposed to remain faithful to him, though it is not at all infrequent that a ^Nlasai may sanction her going with any man, especially if he be a friend or a guest. If unfaithful without permission, she might in old times have been clubbed to death, but as a general rule a breach of the marriage covenant is atoned for by a payment on the part of the adulterer. One way and another, by custom and by disposition, it must, I think, be stated that the Masai women are very immoral. Marriage is simply the selection of a likely girl by a retiring warrior, and the handing over to her father of a number of cow.s, bullocks, goats, sheep, and small additional gifts of honey, goat skins, and perhaps iron wire. After a girl is married she may not return to her father's village unless accompanied by her husband. Nearly every old woman is a midwife, and husbands do not attend 461. MA8AI WARRIORS the deliveries of their wives unless there is some serious complication which threatens danger to life. when, in addition to the husband, a medicine man mav be called in. About a vear after the child is horn 826 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. it is given a oiame. (During its infancy, if no name was given, the mother called it by the name of its father's father.) This individual ai)pellation, which is conferred on it with some ceremony, may possibly be the name of the father, or it may be a name which has no direct associations with any relation. If the child is its mother's firstborn she also takes its new name for her own. A goat and a cow are killed on this occasion, at which are present most of the relations, and the flesh is cooked and eaten by the family i)arty. The undigested food from the intestines of these animals is made up into ••medicine," and a little of this is put into the child's mouth. From that time forward until the next name-change takes j)lace both child and mother are called by this new name. If the eldest child should die, the mother retains its name until she gives birth to another child, and, in like manner, a year after the birth of this next child, she assumes the name which is given to it at the family gathering. When a girl child is born, she is given her mother's name, which she retains until her marriage ; then she is renamed by her husband; and ever afterwards it is considered to entail on her bad luck if she is addressed by the name of her girlhood. Of course, as soon as she is a mother she again changes her name to that which is bestowed on her eldest child a year after its birth ; while, if she remains childless after some years of marriage, she assumes once more the mother's name which she bore as a child. Boys retain the names given to them a year after birth all through their warriorhood, but change them when they marry. After this change of name it is likewise considered, in their case, a most unpropitious and unfriendly thing to do to address them by the name they bore in their bachelor days. A dead man is never referred to by name, if possible. It is considered so unlucky to do this that the action is equivalent to an intentional desire to bring harm on the relatives of the deceased. If any reference must be made to a dead person, it is generally by means of a roundabout description, or by such terms as "my brother," "my father," "my uncle," "my sister." Husbands and wives may with less disastrous consequences refer to their dead partners by name, though even this is done in a whisper and with reluctance. Amongst the living there is a very intricate ceremony on the subject of addressing by name, and a Masai of good manners would feel quite at home in the British Hou.-e of Commons, where much the same prejudice prevails. If you wish to get at the real name borne by a Masai man, it is advisable to a.-k one of his friends standing by, who, in reply, will probably gWe you the name of the man's mother, if he be an eldest son and unmarried, for in sucli case it mu^t be identical with the man's own name. It is MASAI, TUEKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 827 not cons^idered unlucky if a person in speaking to you mentions vour name in your presence; it is the employment of the name in direct address which is thought to bring ill luck. Any one who is asked abruptly for his name probably gives that of his father, which may, of course, also be his. A child would never address his father or motlier by name, but would call them " father " or " mother." A married man would also not call to his father- and mother-in-law by their names, but would address them by an honorific title; a woman would simply call her husband's parents " father " and " mother." Boys may address other boys and young girls by their names ; but they must speak to all the warriors as " El ^lorran," married or old woman as " Koko," and old married men as " Baba." Women generally address old or married men of any importance as " 01 Baiyan " (" Elder "). A married man would j)robably call out to a woman, not by name, but address her as " Eii gitok " ( " Woman "). If a Masai bears the same name as a member of his tribe who dies, he may change his own name to avoid ill luck. Little hoys among the Masai are soon put to work at herding cattle and making themselves generally useful. They are lean, lank little shrimps at this stage, and receive a large share of cuffs and kicks, and not over much food. Young boys are classed as " Laiok " (singular, " Laioni "). After circumcision, and before they become warriors, the youths are " El Manna," and sometimes " Selogunya," or "shaven head." As a rule the circumcision of the boys takes place in numbers at a time. Boys and youtlis between the ages of eight and fifteen may be operated on. The elders of a district decide from time to time when a circumcision ceremony is to take place. When a sufficient number of boys have been gathered together, songs are sung, and there is a good deal of feasting, the old men drinking much fermented mead, and often becoming very drunk. P^or at least a month before the circumcision takes place the boys have been out in the wilderness collecting honey, or purchasing it from the mountain tribes. From the honey collected they have made mead with the assistance of their mothers for the old men to drink during the festivities. The operation of circumcision is generally performed by skilled Andorobo, who are paid a goat each for their work. Eacli youth that is circumcised must produce an ox (which, of course, will be given to him by his father, or nearest male relative if his father is dead). The flesh of the oxen is the foundation of the feasts which accompany the ceremony. After circumcision the boys remain shut up in their mother's houses for four days, during which time they eat nothing but fat and drink milk. They carefully shave their heads when going back into the world. The Masai, agricultural and pastoral, deal with their dead in a Nery 828 MASAI, TURKANA, StJK, NANDI, ETC. suTinnarv manuer. Unless the dead person is a male and a chief, the coi-}tse is simply carried to a short distance from the village, and left on the ground to be devoured by hyoenas, jackals, and vultures. The constant presence of hyoenas and the small Neophron and Necrosyrtes, and the large Ofogyps vultures round the Masai kraals is encouraged by this practice, and the Masai never actively interfere with these scavengers, unless a hva-na should attempt — as they sometimes do — to enter a village and carry off live-stock or children. Important chiefs, however, are buried, and a year after the burial the eldest son or the appointed successor of the chief carefully removes the skull of the deceased, making at the same time a sacrifice and a libation with the blood of a goat, some milk, and some honey. The skull is then carefully secreted by the son, whose possession of it is imdo-stood to confirm him in power, and to impart to him some of tlie wisdom of his predecessor. In several parts of the Rift Valley cairns of stones meet the eye. They mark the barial-places of dead chiefs, though there is probably no supreme chief of the ]Masai race buried in that direction. ^N'omen are unable to inherit property. The property would be held for them by their sons or brothers under special circumstances. After the death of a Masai father his clothing and adornments are generally destroyed, and his weapons are given to his sons, or are sold. His eldest son inherits all his property in cattle, sheep, and goats, and it rests with him henceforth to support his mother and his step-mothers, and to look after his biothers and sisters. As regards the diseases from which the jNlasai suffer, Dr. Bodeker, a Government medical officer who has lived for some years amongst the -"Masai of the Uganda Protectorate, sends me the following particulars : Malarial fever is rarely met with amongst the Masai in the countries to which they are indigenous. These countries lie for the most part on the healthier ])lateaux of East Africa. But if a Masai leaves this relatively dry grass-hmd either for the lower levels nearer the Indian Ocean or for the rich forest-lands of Uganda, he is almost as liable to malarial fever as a European. In the same way cases of blackwater fe\er amongst the ^lasai may occur when these people enter the forest regions of Central Africa. It is stated that the .Alasai cure themselves of malarial fever in their own country by a decoction of cassia bark. They drink, at any rate, an astringent potion made from the bark of some tree which belongs to the great leguminous ordei-. They are most subject to smallpox. This terrible scourge, which does not seem to have been known to the Masai until about 1850 (or sixty years ago), has repeatedly swept through their country, carrying off hundreds, even thousands, at a time. In 1892 one of tlu- Worst of till- eijidemics of smallpox occurred, and Dr. Bodeker states MASAI, TUllKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 829 that at Nairobi alone tlicic were over 2,000 deaths. About this jieriod a Somali trader exphiined to the .Alasai of the Rift Valley and Nairobi the principle of inoculation. Numbers of them voluntarily submitted to this rude prophylactic measure, and went through, as a result, a mild form of smallpox, which, however, in some cases, ended fatally. Since that time, however, the Masai have thronged to the European doctor, wherever there is one, to he vaccinated. I verily believe that but for tlie advent of the European the pastoral Masai would in a few years have become absolutely extinct between smallpox and the cattle plague which induced famine. Lung diseases are rare, the Masai having been inured from early youth to extremes of heat and cold ; but in tliis case it is rather the survival of the fittest, as there is considerable mortality amongst the children. They sufifer much from intestinal worms, chiefly fi-om the Tt description are the small pieces of metal, wood, or unclassified rulibish sewn up in skin bags, which are given to them by the "Laibon,"or priest-doctor, and are worn round the neck on a chain or wire. They are, however, acquainted with roots, bark, leaves, and sap of curative properties — astringents, laxatives, tonics, sudatories, and excitants. These drugs are sometimes taken in milk, or are mixed with the food (meat) which is being stewed or boiled. With regard to surgery, they are able in a rough-and-ready fashi«ni to 830 MASAI, TUEKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. (leal with the cure of wounds, the arre>ting of haemorrhage, and the mending of l)roken bones. When a large wound has been inflicted, the two sides are brought together by means of the long, white thorns of the acacia, wliich are jiassed through the hps of the wound like needles. A strip of titirc or Ikiss is then wound round the exposed points of the thorns on each side of the wound, just as a boot might be laced up. Haemorrhage is arrested in the same way, or by ligatures, or pressing on to the severed vein a poultice of cow-dung and dust. A fractured limb is straightened as far as possible so that the broken ends of the bone may come together, and is then tightly bandaged with long strips of hide. When they are absolutely obliged to amputate a limb a tight ligature is tied just above the line of amputation. The limb is then placed on a hard, smooth log, and is deftly chopped ofif by the stroke of a sharp ^lasai sword. Before the advent of the European the Masai would apply butter to the stump to assist healing; but now they have such a belief in that nauseous-smelling drug, iodoforai, that they will send considerable distances to a European doctor to obtain it for curing their wounds and ulcers. The medicine men of the Masai are not infrequently their chiefs. The supreme chief of the whole race is almost invariably a powerful "medicineman." These " Laibon " * (as they are called) are priests as well as doctors. They are skilled in the interpretation of omens, in the averting of ill luck, the bringing of rain, and the interpretation of dreams. The [Masai have very little religion. They believe in a vague power of the sky, whose name simply means "sky" ("Angai"t). Sometimes this word is equally used to indicate rain, though there is also a special word for the water descending from the sky ("Attasha"). The sky god is sometimes invoked when a severe drought threatens ruin to the pastures. On such an occasion as this the chief of the district will summon the children of all the surrounding villages. They come in the evening, just after sunset, and stand in a circle, each child holding a bunch of grass. Their mothers, who come with them, also hold grass in their hands. The children then commence a long chant. Some of the Masai hold that at the time when their race began there were four deities ruling the world. One was black, and full of kindness towards humanity ; another was white, but held himself more aloof — was, in fact, the god or goddess I of the Oreat Firmament. Then there was * The word really is in the singular Ol-aihon ; in the plural, El-aibon. ^ ^+ Sonietiines i)ronouncecl "5:gai." It is difficult to say whether the root is "^gai' or "Gai," with the feminine article '-En-" or "An-." + For "Jsgai" may be a word with a feminine significance. MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 831 a grey god, who was wholly indifferent to tli»^ welfare of humanity; and a red god, who was thoi'oughly bad. The black god was very human in his attributes — and, in fiict, was nothing but a glorified man, and the ancestor of the INIasai. They generally imagine that the black god originally lived on the snowy summit of Mount Kenya, where the other gods, pitying his loneliness, sent him a small boy as a companion. When the boy grew up, he and the black god took to themselves wives from amongst the surrounding Negro races, and so procreated the first Masai men. Afterwards, they grey g'and the red gods became angry at the increase of peo[)le on the earth, and punished the world with a terrible drought and scorching heat. The child-com- panion of the black god, who had grown up into a man and was already the father of several Masai children, started off for the sky to re- naonstrate with the deities. A few days afterwards he returned, bringing copious rain with him, and remained henceforth on earth till his own death at a ripe age. This child is sup- posed to have been the principal ancestor of the Masai people, while his god-companion, the black deity, was the founder of the royal house of the Sigirari tribe — represented at the present day by two great chiefs, Lenana and 8endeyo, half-brothers, one of whom lives on British territory near Nairobi, and the other within German P^ast Africa. After the child had brought rain to the earth, the grey and the red gods quarrelled with each other, and were killed. The black god also died, after he had founded the reigning family ; and now the Masai only acknowledge the existence of one deity of supreme power and vague attributes, the white god of the firmament, who often shows himself strangely indifferent to the needs of humanity. 462. MASAI CHIEF AND MEDICINE MAN (THE LATE TERERE) 832V MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. The .Masai do not In'lieve in d future life for women or common people. Only chiefs and infiueoitial head-men possess any life beyond the grave. It is thouifht that some of their more notable ancestors return to earth in the sha})e of snakes — either pythons or cobras. The tribal snakes of the Masai must be black because they themselves are dark skinned. They believe that white snakes look after the welfare of Euro[)eans. These snakes certainly live in a half-tamed state in the vicinity of large Masai villages, generally in holes or crevices. They are supposed never to bite a member of the clan which they protect ; but they are ready lo kill the enemies of that clan and their cattle. When a Masai marries, his wife has to be introduced to the tutelar}^ snake of the clan and rigorously ordered to recognise it and never to harm it. Even the children are taught to respect these reptiles. These snakes sometimes take up their abode near water-holes, which, it is supposed, they will defend against unlawful use on the part of strangers. The fetish snake is often consulted by people in perplexity, though what replies it is able to give must be left to the imagination. The snakes are, however, really regarded with implicit belief as being the form in which renowned ancestors have returned to this mundane existence. The ]\lasai also have a vague worship of trees, and regard grass as a sacred symbol. When wishing to make peace or to deprecate the hostility of man or god, a Masai plucks and holds in his hand wisps of grass, or, in default of grass, green leaves. The trees they particularly reverence are the " subugo," the bark of which has medical properties, and a species of parasitic fig, which they call the " retete." These figs begin as a small seedling with a slender, whitish stem growing at the roots of some tall tree — a Khaya, Yitex, or Trachylohiurn. Or the fig seedling may develop from a crack high up in the tree-trunk from which it is to grow as a parasite. Little by little the fig swells and grows, and throws out long, snaky, whitish roots and branches, until by degrees it has enveloped the whole of the main trunk of its victim in glistening coils of glabrous root and branch. Gradually these enveloping tentacles meet and coalesce, until at hist the whole of the trunk of the original tree is covered from sight and absorbed by the now massive fig-tree, the branches of which radiate in all directions, and sometimes in their loops and contorted forms come (juite close to the ground. The green figs, which grow straight out of the trunk, are sometimes eaten by the boys and girls of the ]\Iasai, and their seniors propitiate the tree by killing a goat, bringing blood in a calabash, and pouring it out over the base of the tree-trunk, about the branches of which also they will strew grass. Grass and leaves, in fact, occui)y a })rominent place in the Masai category of sacred things. T have already mentioned that when peace or peaceful measures are to be MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 833 indicated it is customary to hold grass or leaves in one's right hand. Grass is often laid between the forks of trees as a party of warriors proceeds on an expedition, and grass is thrown after the warriors bv their sweethearts. The sorcerers and '" Laibonok," or priests, precede nearly every mystic action by the plucking of grass. Another superstitious custom to which the Masai formerly attached much importance was the act of spitting. In marked contradistinction to the prejudice against expectoration as a polite custom in Euroi)ean societies, not only amongst the Masai, but in the allied Xandi and Sfik peoples, to spit at a person is a very great compliment. The earlier travellers in ^lasailand were astonished, when making friendship with old Masai chiefs and head-men. to be constantly spat at. When I entered the Uganda Protectorate and met the ^lasai of the Eift Valley for the first time, every man, before extending his hand to me, would spit on the palm. When they came into my temporary house at Xaivasha Fort they would spit to the north, east, south, and west before entering the house. Every unknown object which they regard with reverence, such as a passing train, is spat at. Xewly born children are spat on by every one who sees them. They are, of course, being laughed out of the custom now by the Swahilis and Indian coolies and the Europeans ; and it must be admitted that, however charming a race the Masai are in many respects, they will lose none of their inherent charm by abandoning a practice which- except in parts of America and Southern Europe, is very justly regarded with disgust. Dancing among the Masai does not differ markedly from this exercise and ritual in other races of Central Africa. There is the war-dance of the warriors when returning from a successful expedition. This is, of course, a mimic warfare, sometimes most amusing and interesting to the spectator. The men will at times become so excited that the sham tight threatens to degenerate into an angry scuffle. There are dances of a somewhat indelicate nature which precede the circumcision ceremonies of boys and girls, and dances which accompany the formal naming of a child. Barren women, or women who have not succeeded in having children, paint their faces with pipeclay in the most hideous fashion till they look like skulls, arm themselves with long sticks, and dance before a medicine man, or a big chief reputed to be a medicine man, in order that his remedies may result in the longed-for child. These dances are almost invariably accom- panied by songs, and, in fact, one word in the ^lasai language — " os-singolio " — means " song-dance." As regards music, they have no musical instruments except drums. They are very fond of singing, and the voices of the men occasionally are a high and agreeable tenor ; but more often, Hke most Africans, the men 831 .AfASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. sing in a disagreeable falsetto. The wnnn^n's voices, though powerful, are extremely shrill — shriller than the highest soprano that ever made me shudder in a European opera-house. It struck me that the Masai women had extraordinary range of compass. They were able to produce very deep contralto notes as easilv as an upper C. Singing usually means a chosen songster or songstress yelling a solo at the top of his or her voice, and being accompanied by a chorus of men or maidens, women and men often singing together. The chorus does not usually sing the same air as the soloist, but an anti-strophe. I took down a record on my phonograph of some of these Masai songs. One of these I have attempted to reduce to our notation, and it is as follows: — Chorus. The Masai have few industries. The smelting and forging of iron is done for them usually by a helot tribe of smiths related to the Andorobo and the Xandi, and generally called the Elgunono. This people not onlv smelts the iron (which is usually obtained as a rubble of ironstone from the beds of rivers) by means of a clay furnace, heated with wood fuel and worked with the usual African bellows ; but beats out the pig iron with hammers into spears, swords, tools, and ornaments. The Masai women make a small amount of earthenware. The agricultural Masai are much more industrious, and employ themselves in all the usual industries of basket-weaving, mat-making, and other simple arts practised by the Bantu Negroes, from whom, no doubt, they have learnt a good deal. The pastoral Masai are greatly indebted to the Bantu and Xandi tribes for their adornments and implements, though they are increasingly dependent on the European, Asiatic, and Swahili traders for many of their requirements in the way of iron and copper wire and beads. They must, in fact, have adopted much of their present style of adornment in relatively recent times, since they became acquainted with the manufactured goods of Europe and Asia. To the Andorobo they look to provide them with colobus monkey .skins and ostrich feathers, and perhaps with ivory. About 150 years ago, as far as one may reckon by native tradition, the l)astoral Masai were well established in the country immediately to the north of Kilimanjaro. The Kikuyu held the (then) forest-clad heights along the eastern escarpment of the Rift Valley, but the Masai throve and became coini)letelv dominant wherever the forest afforded no refuge to tlieir foes. About that time a powerful medicine man arose amongst MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 835 them called Kibebete, of the Sigirari tribe. This man brought together under his rule most of the Masai clans of the ])astoral section. With the agricultural ^lasai to the north, between Elgon and Baringo, he had nothing to do, and it was about thi.s time that the enmity between the two divisions of the Masai race began — an enmity which lasted until quite recently, and verv nearly resulted in the total extinction of the agricultural section of the race. From Kil^ebete is descended Lenana, who is the eldest surviving son of the great chief ^Nlbatian. He has a brother. 463. A MA:^.VI FOKGK AN1> HLACKSMlTll (KNMAMUSI) Sendeyo, who has quarrelled with him and set uj) as supreme chief over the Masai on German territory to the south of the British frontier. In the mountainous region of Tarangole (which lies to the east of the marshy Bari country, and is i»art of the long ridge of plateau and mountain which stretches with few interruptions in a north-westerly line from the highlands east of the Mctoria Nyanza to the triangle between the Sobat and the White Nile) dwell the Lataka'^' people who, it has been already observed, are nearly related to the Masai in language, in physique, and in some of their manners and customs. But the Latuka, early in the history * This is Baker's and Emin Pasha's version of tlie name, which is ))Ossibly El Atukan (cf. with El Tukan, or Taken, the native name of the Kanuisia tribe of Xandi). 836 :\rASAT. TURKANA, SUK, XANDI, ETC, of the Egypt iaii Sudan, became somewhat Arabised by tlie Arabs and Nubians, who. under the protecticn of Egypt, invaded these regions of the I'pper Nile as slave- and ivory-traders some fifty years ago. The country of the Latuka was never formally conquered by Egy})t. nor was it overrun by t lie Dervishes after the ^NJahdi's revolt. It may be said that during the attenuated life of the Egyptian Administration under Emin Pasha. Latuka preserved an attitude of friendly neutrality, which it continued to the British Administration during and aftc^i the mutinv of the Sudanese 404. KAKAMU.IO PKOPLE ■soldiers. It is a populous country, governed by powerful chiefs, who many of them talk Arabic, and all of whom dress in Arab costume. A number of the Latuka have adopted Islam. This, and their partiality for Arab clothing, has tended to obscure their relationship to the nude and nomad INlasai. The fact remains, however, that of all existing languages their dialect approaches neai'est to the tongue of the Masai, which is separated from them by many degrees of latitude and longitude. I regret that alone among the im])ortant or interesting dialects of the Uganda Protectorate Latuka finds no place in my collected vocabularies. Such knowledge of jiae^m^^ssmm0m.>.-rir^^ 465. A KAUAMOJO WOMAN 838 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. their language as I possess is derived from iMiiin Pasha's article on the subject published ill the Zeitschrifi far Ethnologie, Berlin, 1882. Tlie question is such an interesting one that I trust the officials or missionaries of the Uganda Protectorate may make haste to collect vocabu- laries of Latuka before that language dies out vmder the rivalry of Sudanese Arabic or of the flourishing Acholi tongues to the south. What would be interesting in this connection would be to ascertain if Patuka were more arcahic than Masai, both tongues being derived from a stock which was a blend between the tongues of the Nile Negroes and of the Hamitic Galas. At present, from the little I know, it would seem to me that Masai comes nearer to this original blend than the tongue of Latuka, which is slightly more corrupt. If this be the case, the original birthplace of the ^Nlasai may have been farther to the east or north-east than the Latuka. East of the Latuka country there would seem to be a belt of Nilotic people connecting the Acholi tribes with their allies in race and language, the Dioika or Janke.* To the east and south-east, however, of this belt of Acholi people is the Karamojo, or Karamoyo, country, which extends north and south from the northern flanks of ]Mount Elgon nearly to a level with the north end of Lake Kudolf. The Karamojo people physically are closely allied to the Bantu Negroes, though in their cranial and facial characteristics they betray ai ancient intermixture with the Masai. The women, though quite of tlxe Negro type, have sometimes very fine figures, modelled a good deal more according to the conventional ideas of beauty amongst Europeans. Tiiey are broad at the hips, and have thick, well-shaped thighs and short, straight legs hoiu the knee to the ankle. The men are very like the good-looking ty[je of Bantu Negro. Sometimes, however, they show traces of Nilotic intermixture by the long, lanky figures, knock knees, and long, thill, splayed legs. They are black of skin. There is a slight tendency * .lanke, or Dyaiike, is the correct form, which the Sudanese Arabs have conuiited to Difika. 4'j'j, 407- TURKAXA AXD SUK MEX FROM THE \l(iMTV Ot THK KUiO iUI.I.^ AN VOL. II. 24 840 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. ])fak pei-pi end ( to prognathism. Like the Nilotic and Masai peoples, they are indifferent to the use of clothes, and the men usually go quite naked, wearing only ^vai^t-belts and necklaces. The lobe of the ear is pierced, and so is the upper part of the rim. Two or more brass rings are worn tliroagh the lobe (which is not, however, stretched down to the shoulder, as in the Masai), and from one to five smaller brass rings are inserted in the holes pierced through the rim of the outer ear. The\' do not as a rule affect much de- coration of the body by means of cicatrices. Women may occasionally have parallel rows, of weals across the upper arm,. The women do not shave the head universally, as is done among the ^Masai and the Suk,. (Jrdinarily the wool is allowed to grow imtil it forms a smootk cap of short hair over the top- of the head. Among the men this " cap-like " appearance is heightened by plastering the head with a mixture of clay and cow-dung. I have not seea any attempt made to extend the growth of hair into a chignon down the back as is done amongst the Sfik and Turkana, and occa- siunallv amongst the Nilotic tribes to the west of Karamojo^ But the Karamojo fasten to a in their hair-cap at tlie back of the head a long string which fciUs down ■ndicularly over the back, lying just between the shoulder blades. The )f this string is decorated with fluffy balls of white feathers, generally A SUK FROM NE.\R LAKE SUGOTA MASAI, TURKAXA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 841 the down of the maraliou stork. A hair-cap is often stuck with ostrich plumes, or may be further decorated with a huge pall of l)lack feathers. The Karamojo are industrious agriculturists, and are peaceful people with a love of commerce. They have l)een often harried in times past by the Turkana on the east, the Nile tribes on the west, and outlying sections of the Nandi on the south. Xot much is known about their customs, but they are said to be similar in some respects to those of the Bantu Negroes, of which they evidently form an outlying branch that has accepted from their conquerors of Masai stock an early branch of the Masai language. To the east of Karamojo, in the soriiewhat arid countries along the western coast-lands of Lake Kudolf, and thence south-west over high mountains and hot valleys to the north end of Lake Baringo, extends the distribution of the gigantic Tarkana-Suh people. The Turkana who dwell to the west of Lake Kudolf are perhaps the tallest race living on the globe's surface. The late Captain Wellby considered that in one district the men presented an average of 7 feet in height. I met with very tall men amongst the Suk, but I do not think the tallest exceeded 6 feet 6 inches. The colour of the skin in the Suk-Turkana group is chocolate-brown. In their physiognomy they sometimes recall the jNIasai very closely, but I ha\'e seen one or two examples with a cast of features almost Caucasian. The hair of the head, though abundant, is altogether a Negro's wool. On the whole, perhaps, their 'physical characteristics may, together with their language, support the theory that the Turkana-Suk group of Negroes are the outcome of a mixture between the JNIasai stock (which is a blend between the Hamite and the Negro) and the Nilotic peoples such as the Acholi and Dinka.* Li their original migration the * For the better iinderstanding of these shades of definition of the varying blends of the Xegro with early Caucasian invaders of the iS'ile basin, I give the following summary of my views : — A statement shoiving approximatehj the projMrtions of the earhj Caucasian element in the negroid or Xegro races of East Central Africa. . . Proportion of White Xanie of Eace or Stock, an.l Con.pusition. (Caucasian) Blood. HiMA (Hamite, alUed to Gala, Somali, etc., Caucasian and original Xegro) A Masai-Latuka (Hima and Nilotic Xegro) i to ^ Suk-Turkaxa-Elgumi (Masai and perhaps Gala with Xilotic and Bantu) ^ XiLOTio (a dash of Hima and Masai with muc-h original Xegro and a little Pygmy and Bushman blood) ^t Bantu (West African Xegro mainly, with a little absorption of Congo Pygmy, and, on the east and south, Bushman, blood ; powerfully modified by Hima [Hamitic] intermixture in many tribes) . . • tV to ^\ West Afeicax Xegro j Pygmy - Original Xegro stocks ^one BusHMAX (Hottentot) J MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 813 iMasai may lia\e stayed for some time in the vicinity of Lake Kadolf, have imposed their langfuage (since much changed), and have produced the |)res(Mit gigantic race of Turkana and Sfik hy mingling with the antecedent population of Nilotic and Bantu Negroes. It should he noted that, accord- ing to native tradition, it is only some fifty years ago since the Burkeneji section of the Masai were driven froni the Kerio Valley luesi of Lake Kudolf by the Turkana-Suk. The men among the 8uk and Turkana affect absolute nudity, wearing at most a small leather cape over the shoulders. Their women are not much more clothed. As among the Masai, the women shave the head. but the men, on the contrary, cultivate the hair of the head into enormous chignons. They begin as youths by straining their woolly locks as far as they can pull them out from the surface of the skull. They rub them with grease, clay, and cow-dung, to straighten the hair and stiflen it into a kind of felt. This stiffening of fat, clay, and cow-dung thickly coats the outer surface of the hair hug as it hangs down over the neck. When a man dies, all the hair is carefully cut oft^ his head. It is 470. TWO TAI.I. SLK KI.DKK.- 8U MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, XANDI, ETC. washed, and tlu? cleaned felt resulting from this process is cut u[) and divided amcnig the man's sons. These contributions are \\oven into the growing chifjnon, and at last by means of these additions and by the continued growth of the liead-hair a huge bag is formed, which hangs low down over the shoulders, reaching even to the loins. The hair chignon is trained into a kind of bag, the opening to which is at the back, jusf behind the nape of the neck. In this huge bag of felted hair (coated with a paste of whitish clay) are kept the few necessities of life or treasures of the Suk man. Herein he puts away and carries about his fire-stick and drill, his snuff, or a few beads. The outer surface of the bag and the hair on the top of the head are decorated with ostrich feathers, sometimes in wild profusion. Occasionally the white feathers of the ostrich are dyed yellow or red by some process. Like the Masai, the men seldom travel without sandals of ox hide. Among the Turkana the outer rim of the ear-conch is pierced from tlie top of the ear down to the lobe with sometimes eight holes, or as few as two. Through these holes in the rim of the ear are inserted brass or iron rings. Coils of iron wire are generally worn round the neck. Tt)e wire is \'ery thick, and com- })els the wearer to hold his head stiffly. In the Karamojo and some of the Suk people the "uder-fip is pierced, and into this hole is inserted either a bird's or a porcupine's quill, or a long, sharp tooth of some beast, or a curved rod of brass. The septum of the nose is pierced 4/1. A .--LK (niKh I,,. .,i .N,,i,,i, ,,, i;ai;i.N(,u lu botli mcu and women amongst MASAI, TURKANA, SDK, NANDI, ETC. 815 the Sfik, and tlironi(h tlie liolc is inserted a brass ring, to which is tixcd, close up to the nose, a flat disc of brass about the size of a florin. Iron ■wire is made into rings, whieli are worn on the n))per arm, just under 472. A GKUUP OF sC'K (showing TATTOOIXti OX AHMS) the deltoid muscle. Sometimes the Turkana wear on the right wrist a curious circular or semi-circular knife. This is a thin blade of steel with a sharp edge on the outer side, but a blunt one on the side nearest the body. It has a shape something like a very thick crescent or quoit. This arm-knife is found frequently amongst the tribes at the north end of Lake Kudolf. Tlie Turkana warriors we;u- another curious adornment on the right arm. It is a band of plaiti-d leather from which hangs a long string of the same sul\stance, at the end of which the long white hair of a cow's tail, or of the colobus monkey, is fastened in a tassel. Or the armlet may be of leather with long pendants of chains. F'estoons of chains or of leather may also be fixed to the leg below the knee. The men sometimes u'ear a curious waisi-heH of leather, which over the buttocks has a breadth of six inches and decreases round the abdomen to three. The edge of this lentker girdle of goat skin is sewn with small beads, generally made of brass. Tlie iron and steel of which 846 MASAI, TURK AX A, SUK, NANDI, ETC. so iiiiiiiv of tilt' Turkaiia oniaiiiciits arc made is (Mther of local manu- fiictiut' or is olitaiiiod fVinii the Karaiiiojo trilies on the we.-t. The brass — since it existed in tht^ country l:ef'ore the arrival of trading caravans from the coast — must have found its way down by degrees from Abyssinia. Old Turkana men sometimes dispense with the great hair bag which is so common among the Sfik, and instead comb out and straighten, as far as possible, their own hair (which they encourage to grow as long as possible), and gradually train this hair, without any artificial additions, into a long, pendulous pod considerably over a foot long and only a few- inches broad. This pod of hair, like the huge felted bag, is adorned witli ostrich feathers, and terminates in a wire tail. The Turkana chiefs, or head-men often wear on top of their coiffure actual hats made of felted liuman hair and adorned with kauri shells and brass beads. Some of the young men make handsome caps, the outside of which is set with a large number of short black ostrich feathers. The skin in both the Turkana and Suk is decorated by a sort of tattoo (see Fig. 472), in continuous lines or rows of sjiots round the shoulders and upper arms and extending over to the chest. The women generally ornament themselves in the same way over the stomach. These marks do not ajipear to be made by raised scars, as is so common elsewhere, but apparently by burning the skin, as the Masai women do, with some acrid juice. The uvmen among the Turkana do not shave their heads* Their hair is twisted into a number of tails, which hang straight down over the forehead and at the back of the liead. A kind of l)ast is sometimes plaited in with the hair, to make these pigtails stiff. The Turkana girls luear small leather aprons over the pudenda, decorated round the edge with innumerable little circular discs of ostrich-egg shell. From the waist-belt there also hangs at the back a long piece of dressed leather, decorated round the edge with brass beads. The front aprons in the married uvmen are long both in front and behind. The women also wear rows of beads round the neck and girdles round the waist of the small bones or teeth of antelopes and goats strung together; or the girdle may be made of chains of iron or brass rings. The rings and discs in the ears and septum of the nose are like those worn by the men. They also stick the same quills or quill-shaped wires into their lower lips, and wear rings and bracelets round their arms and ankles. The men often irear girdles of large white beads or rounded segments of ostrich-egg shell strung together. The Turkana. a})parently. do not circanicise. Sometimes, like the Alasai. they remove one of the louver incisors. The women occasionally wear * Contrasting thus with tlie women of the Siik and Masai, who almost invariably sliave their head-hair. MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC, 847 cloaks of drt'ssed leather ill addition to the ajiroiis alnadv mentioned. The people of the agricultural section of the Silk (which is that which inhabits the mountains to tlie south-west of Lake Kudolf) occasionally shield themselves from the cold by mantles of dressed skin, but as a rule the men wear much the same scanty clothing and the same adornments as the Turkana. The Sfik do circumcise — at least, circumcision is practiced by that section of the Suk people dwelling near Lake Baringo and in 473. OSTRICH EGG AND ANTELOPE "' KNLt'KLE-BOXE "" NECKLACES: TL UKANA, KIVEK KEKIO the Upper Kerio Valley. Otherwise, with the exception of the Resliiat people at the north end of Lake Kudolf. and of the ^Nlasai and Xandi. none of the tribes of Nilotic origin or affinities have adopted this rite. The Suk. like the Turkana. pierce the lower lip. and insert a quill- shaped ornament. They wear much the same rings in their ears as do the Turkana. Ivorv bracelets are sometimes seen in addition. The Suk women sometimes shave the head, sometimes let the hair grow normally, and others again— especially the unmarried girls— cut the hair very close to the head on both sides, leaving a ridge like a cock's comb, which runs 848 MASAI, TURKAXA, SUK, XANDI, ETC. the wliolc length of tlie head, from the forehead to the nape of the neck. There is evidently a close affinity, not only in language,* but in physical type, adornments of the body, manners, and customs, between the 8uk and Turkana. who might almost be described as one people. The 8uk and Turkana men carry about with tlieni generally long tobacco receptacles made of the horn of the oryx (Beisa) antelope, and a small — I might almost write tinv— stool with three legs. This is really cut out of the forking branch of a tree. It is about eight inches long, and is hollowed out for fitting on (vide Fig. 474). The houses of the Turkana are usually ramshackle huts of the most primitive description. The sides of these huts are made by sticking long, smooth branches into the ground round a circle, and bending the upper ends slightly inward. On top of this is placed a rough framework of sticks or palm frond stems, on which grass is thrown and heaped with little or no attempt at thatching. The houses of the Suk in the mountains are rather more elaborate ; in fact, theyresemble in material, though not in shape, the huts of the Sabei and Masaba people on the northern slopes of Mount The sides of the circular dwellings are made of long billets of The roof is tall and conical, like an extinguisher, and constructed of stalks of sorghum. Both Suk and Turkana are fond of tobacco, which they chew and take as snuff. They will eat almost anything, animal or vegetable, even the Jlesh of dogs. The western Suk, who dwell in the mountains north of the Nandi Plateau and south-east of the Karamojo country, are painstaking agricultarists, growing chiefly sorghum, pum})kins and gourds, eleusine, sweet potatoes, beans, and tobacco. Their country is generally a little too dry for bananas. The Turkana and the Sfik dwelling in the plains to the north of Baringo cultivate but little, owing to the capricious nature of the rainfall and a constant succession of disastrous droughts with which the * Wbich, however, in the Suk shows considerable Nandi influence. 474. A SUK STOOL Elgon. hewn wood fixed tightly in the ground close to one another. MASAI, TURKANA, StJK, XANDI, ETC. 849 lower-lying country between l>;iringo and the north end of Lake Rudolf is afflicted. What little cultivation there is generally takes the form of .sorghum fields. The Turkana make meal of the gingerbread-like rind of the Dum palm fruits. The Dum, or branding fan-palm (Hyphiene thebaica), whicli is so common in Upper Egypt and Nubia, extends its range to the regions round Lake Rudolf, and thence, with a great break of plateau land, into Eastern Africa in the vicinity of Kilimanjaro, continuing its range eastwards to the littoral of the Indian Ocean. It bears fruits about the size of a large plum or apple. These consist of a hard stone with a thin, chestnut-coloured rind of sweetish substance su])posed to resemble gingerbread in taste. Tiie Turkana and tlie pastoral Suk depend for their sustenance partly on the fish of Lake Rudolf and the neighbouring brackish swamps but mainly on the products of their flocks and herds. The Turkana keep cittle of the humped variety, sheep and (joats, donkeys, and a few camels. They have numerous yellow pariah dogs. According to Count Teleki, the few camels possessed by the Turkana have only been recently obtained by them from the Burkeneji (Masai dwelling at the south end of Lake Rudolf), who obtained them from the >Somali-like people to the east and north-east •of Lake Rudolf. The Turkana donkeys are, of course, the same as those ■described in connection with the Masai. Their sheejj very often have the black heads and necks and white bodies characteristic of the sheep of Galaland and Southern Abyssinia. The Turkana and Silk hunt elephants in nund^ers, and used formerly to attack the buftalo in the same way, though the latter animal is nearly extinct through the ravages of the cattle plague. They also lay snares for ostriches and elephants. The last named are said to be caught in the following manner: Long strips ■of raw buffalo or ox hide are fastened together by secure knots until a leather rope of considerable length is made. One end of this is fastened fiimly round the base of a big tree-trunk in one of the few river valleys in their country where the presence of a permanent water supply creates a forest growth. The other end of the long rope is fitted with a big running noose, and this noose is placed over the narrow [)ath of mud or sand down which the elephants must pass on their way to the water. If it chances that an elepliant puts his foot through the expanded noose, the weight of its body will cause its foot to sink some distance into the loose or muddy soil. The impetus of the animal's body will tigliten the noose round his foot before he can lift it up, and so he is tied by the leg. It seems incredil)le that an ele[ihant can be iletained against his will In- even a rope of leather, but the Turkana assert that such is the case. The western part of the Turkana country, inhos^jftable and waterless as it seems, swarms with elephants, who inhabit the dense forests of withered acacias. 850 :MASAr, TlTUvAXA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. The W(((}jOiin of llic 'I'urkaiia and Sfik consist of sjieais with small, icaf-sliaixnl bhidi's, tlit' cresceiit-sliapecl knives worn on the wrist, a heavy wooden clul) sliajied sonietliini^ like a l^oomerang (the heavy end being often covered with a h-ather sheath), and bows and arrows. The shields of both Snk and Tnrkana are of buffalo, ox, or giraffe hide, with a stick down the middle as a midrilx This stick is bent to a sha[;e something like a bow, and the middle is either scooped out or bent into a loop so as to admit of the passage of the hand. It is attached to the raw hide of the shield by strong leather stitches or lacing. The stick does not project below the bottom of the shield, but extends quite six inches above the top, where it is decorated with a tuft or plume of feathers, or a rosette of \egetal)le fibre. The shape is long and narrow, and the sides and ends are rather concave, so that the four angles project in points. The shield is not of very large size compared to those used by the ^Nlasai. It is an imjiortant fact that this peculiarly shaped leather shield is used all round the west, south, and east sides of Lake Eudolf by Turkana, Suk, Burkeneji Masai, and the half-Hamitic islanders of Elmolo. At the noith end of Lake Kudolf the Eeshiat shield is very long and narrow, and is made of basketwork. Tlie Suk and Turkana have very few manufactures except the making of weapons and ornaments of iron, brass, leather, ostrich shells, etc. The|astoial Sfik and Turkana hardly e\er make pottery, Init ol tain it generallv by trade from the tribes to the west and north. They use gourds as milk vessels. In their luarridrje and hivth custonis they resemble the ^lasai to a great extent, though they do not adopt 'such a rigi UPPER up) that which may be called generically Xandi. The Xandi, or proi)erly speaking the " Nandiek," are a sturdy race of mountaineers which inhabits portions of those u[)lands that are called the Xandi Plateau between the slopes of ]Mount Elgon on the north-east and the \alley of the Nyando on the south. Very closely allied with them are the Liimbwa (who call themselves " Sikisi ") and the Sotik on the south, the Kamdsia (who call themselves " El Tiiken '') on the north-east, the Ehjeyo, Mntei. and JajjUdeil on the north-east, and the Elgonyi (Lako, ^'oma) and Sabei tribes on the 854 MASAI, TURKAXA, SUK, XAXDT, ETC north and south flanks of Mount Eli^on. In afldition, there are mountain tribes allied to the Xandi in language on Mounts ]^ebasien, Kanialinga, iind ^loroto, in the middle of the Karamojo country. On the south, again, across the German frontier, in those sparsely populated steppes between the INIau Escarpment and I gogo, there are a few scattered tribes — 'j _'. ) . s' f - - ■ •■■A-' *^ ^UbBi ^mm *sa-^'i 479. A DAME Ol' THE bUK FlJ JUJU'IXG IX THE Alig possibly offshijots of the Andorobo — who would appear to speak dialects akin to Nandi. Closely related to the Xandi peoples (and the fact sliould be emphasised that all the tribes enumerated above speak practically but one language, with slight dialectal variations) are the Andorobo, and perhaps the Elgunono — two widely scattered helot nomad races who liave attached 480. ELGUIII PEOPLE (SOJIETIIIES CALLED WAMIa) VOL. II, 25 481. AN ANDOKUBO .MAN OK THK HAMITIC TYPE MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 857 tli('ins(4v»-s to the pastoral Masai, and more or less in coiiiiiaiiv ^vitll that proud peo[ile have extended their jonrnevs at tiin(>s near to Galaland on the north and to German East Africa on the south. The bnKnia<^e ordinarilv^ spoken hy the Andoroho is at most only a dialect of Nandi, but in physical type the Andoroho are ohviously a mi.xtinc of many different negro races. Though theic is more homogeneity amono- the Nandi peoples, even they, according to Dr. Shruhsall, exhiliit so much variation in their cranial characteristics that tliey represent the incomplete fusion of something like four stocks — the Nile Negro, the Masai, the Eantu, and some Pygmy element, possibly allied to the Bushmen of South Africa. There may even be a dash of a fifth element— the Gala. Amonfr the Nandi one sees faces occasionally of almost Caucasian outline. The Lundnva branch is a handsome people of tall stature. The Elgonvi of South Elfon are slightly more Bantu in i)hysique ; the Sabei likewise, though there are occasionally faces among them that recall the Gala. Occasionally among the Nandi proper dwarfish types are encountered with strong lirow ridges. The Andoroho tend as a race towards short stature, but their facial type varies so much that it ranges between something very like the Bushman and individuals recalling the handsome features of the Somali. On the whole, the Andoroho and the scarcely distinguishable Elgunono must be considered to have absorbed a larger proportion of the pre-existing Dwarf race than the Nandi mountaineers. The Andorobo were probably formed during a relatively ancient invasion of Plastern Africa by the forerunners of the Masai, who found much of the country east of the Victoria Nyanza peopled by a race akin to the Bushmen-Hottentots. Traces of this race may be seen farther south in the Sandawi people in German Iranga. The Sanr/aui still speak a. language which in its Y)honology resembles closely the Hottentot-Bushman, inasmuch as it possesses the same clicks and gutturals. I d(j not know whether any actual relationship has been pointed out in the vocabulary. The Sandawi are not particularly like the Bushmen in their jihysique, but more resemble the Nandi. Other observers than myself have been struck by the resemblance to the Bushman in individuals of these helot races which more or less accompany the Masai. An interesting passage on the subject may be seen in Yon Hoiinel's narrative of Count Teleki's discovery of Lakes Budolf and Stephanie (vol. i. p. 318). I am beginning to entertain the opinion myself that the first inhabitants of Africa south of the Sahara were a dwarfish Negro race, one half of which (the ancestors of the Bushmen-Hottentots) occupied the more open, grassy regions of Eastern Africa south of Abyssinia, while the other half (the ancestors of the Congo Pygmies) stole into the dense 482. -iwii .\Mii'i;<.'i;ii nr 1 111; iia\iii h: ni'i- 483. AX ANDOKOBO OF TllK I'YLi.MY TY1>E 800 MAS.Vr, TURK AN A. SIK, NANDT, ETC. forests of Kijuatorial Africa Nvliicli in those days strctclicd from the western slopes of the Naiidi Kscar[)ineiit right across the Congo basin to the Atlantic Ocean. The J^)ushnien— like the Pygmies in Eastern Africa — were exterminated with something a})proaching completeness by the Hamitic in\aders of North-Kast Africa, tliongh traces of them still exist in the neighbourhood of Lake Stephanie (the Doko peo[ile). But between Galaland on the north and Cape Colony on the south we have some 4011 evidence of their absorption by the Nilotic and Bantu Negroes in the reversions to their type wliicli occur among all the East African peoples. The Hottentots were no doubt tlie result of a fusion between the Bushmen-Pygmies and a superior Negro race somewhere in East Africa. They, too, w(M-e forced to Hee before the imi)act of stronger tribes, but when they followed on the heels of their Bushmen ])redecessors they brought with them the ox and slieep as domestic animals, and some traces (?) of linguistic affinity witli the Hamitic group of languages. .,}tr^ A Nandi. MASAT, TURKAXA, SUK, NANDT, I:TC. 801 The Nilotic element in the Xaiidi must not b(^ overlooked. Their language, though forming a distinct group of dialects, is obviously related 485. A XANDI to the Nilotic famik. nearly as much as it is to the Turkana-.Masai. Much also in their manners and customs recalls the negro of the Nile- A description of some of their characteristics in this respect may be 862 MASAT, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. taken io iipl'ly invtty gciievally to all the Naii(li-.- / m- ' A \ 1 489. A NAXDl 80G MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. asseml)l(' on tli(> lops of liills roniid groves of big trees. Feasting and dancing take place, and many boys (about the age of fifteen) are circumcised on the same day ])y medicine men skilled in the art. Each lad pavs a fie of one goat. They do not usually decorate their bodies with anv tattooing or cicatrisation. As tribal markings they bore two small holes in the upper part of the rim of the ear. The lobe of the 490. A KAIIASIA eai- is pierced, and vvich iicd hv degrees till it hangs down as in Fig. 488. The lobe is hung with bunches of iron chains, beads, or brass-headed nails. The Andorobo insert through the lobe of the ear an extraordinary wooden cylinder, with two long, upright handles, like a milking pot. The Andorobo also ])ierce the ujiper part of the rim of the ear and pass through the hole a long rod of wood or metal (yee Fig. 481). The srJ8 MASAI, TUUKANA, StJK, NANDI, ETC. Nniidi, l,tiiiili\v:i, jiiul I<]lg(iii people nsually 'ir/^d.f (heir fidir short, l)ut do not iieces<;iril\- sli;i\-e llie lie;iil in eitlKT men or women. Tlie J>abei * men tuisf their h;iir iiili litHe bunches, whicli tlK'V load with fat and clay. The Sulci men aLantu tribes alongside them. In Sabei the walls of the houses are generally constructed of perpendicular slips or billets of wood. The roof is large, and slopes almost down to the ground. The apex of the roof is surmounted by a carved stick, which is sometimes phallic in design. At other times this stick supports an earthenware pot, or the * Xortli Elgoii. t In tlic western part of the Xandi country, on the western escarpment of the Xan(U I'lateau, there arc vast cave strongholds which were regarded by the Nandi as impregnable until they were taken by Lieutenant-Colonel Evatt in the recent Xaiuli Way. Colonel Evatt reported that some of these caves were sufficiently large to b:^ cajiablo of holding 300 head of cattle. A Kamasia. HASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 860 skull and lioins of an aiiti^lopc The neatly tliatclicd loof is k('[)t tidv by loni,*- Immboos being fastened down over the tliatch to withliold the grass from blowing about. The thatch among the Xandi houses is not quite so tidy. Inside these dweUings there are raised benches or platforms of mud 4t/2. A SAliEI MAX OF THE XAXDI STOt'K, NUKTll KLGU.N" aliout six inches above the floor level. These are used as sleeping places. There is only one fireplace, in the centre of the hut, and about a third of the interior space is shut off as a compartment for goats. Above the sleeping places is a ceiling of wickerwork on which are stored pots and gourds of grain. Imndles of tobacco, etc., leaving a space below, above 870 MASAT, TURKAXA, SIJK, NANDT, ETC. the CDUcli. wliirli is oiilv aliout tliicc ;iii(l a half \\'r\ \i\ii,\\. Tlit^ furniture of 111.' liuls consists more or less of cookiug utensils, pots of grain, and the \vea[)ons of the occupant, if lie he a nude. Shoit round billets of wood are used as pillows at the head of the sleeping places. Small children sleep in the same hut as their parents till then* reach the age of five or six years, wlien a small hut is Imilt for them near the parents' dwelling. The huts of the Mutei and Elgeyo people are different in structure from those of the Nandi. Thev excavate a dwelling on the hillside (much as is dcme by the cave-dwellers of Southern Tunis). The front of this artificial cave- dwelling is filled u]) with thorn liushes. The Sal)ei and South Klgon people live a great deal on the produce of 493. PLAN OF NAXDI INTKIUOK their banana cro})s. The rest of the Nandi peopk's are all agriculturists, and cultivate mainly sorghum, eleusine, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and tobacco. The Kanuisia w(ne formerly steady cultivators, but of late years their C(juntry has been afflicted again and again with serious droughts, and in many parts of the Kamjisia Hills the plantations aie now abandoned, the people taking instead to a pastoral life, or becoming entirely dependent on hunting for their food. The Andorobo never cultivate, kec^p no domestic animals, and livt^ entirely by the chase. Their faxourite food is the flesh of the colobus monkey, which they ol.)tain from the dense forests on the Nandi riateau. All tJie Xandi peoples, exce[)t }»erha|is those of iNIount Elgon, are great hunters, and eat all living creatures, except the crowned crane (which they spare out of admiration for its beauty), hya'uas, snakes, frogs, and carrion birds. They MASAI, TUKKAXA, SUK, XAXDI, ETC. 871 are very fond of little pieces of raw meat which they cut off and dev